Time Traveller
by kinzie13
Summary: Everything she knows had been destroyed. Now she has to fight to find her place in an unfamiliar planet & all the rules have changed. Psychic powers, martial arts, advanced technology. But girls are not allowed to fight. Can she make allies, change things for the better, and destroy Naraku before he destroys Earth again & the rest of the galaxy? M- violence,blood,language,dark(ish)
1. Story Note

I'm looking for the owner of a story called Time Traveler that used to be on here. It's set in the future with Dragonships, fighting schools, & interplanetary travel. I want to post the story for other people to enjoy but would really to find the author if possible. I'll be posting for others to enjoy. I don't own this story just want others to read because it's amazing & the author is very awesomely talented!

While i do have all the chapters for this story, i am having to heavily format and edit it for some places to make sense. I am a fast skim reader so mistakes like that don't bother me (or i don't notice till later) but may make it hard to read without editing. Please review & say what u think about the story!


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. I downloaded it almost 10 years ago to read offline in high school & since then it's dissapeared from the internet & i can't find the author. I'm only posting it because whoever wrote this is sooo freaking talented & i think everyone will love this story as much as I do.

-kinzie13

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MARCH 26, 3076 A.D. PS HEADQUARTERS, TOKYO

"They say Naraku launched an attack on the base in America." Rie ran her hand over one of the support columns, face unreadable. "Has your mother mentioned it?"

"No, but she's definitely worried about something." Kagome paused to watch a green shape streak across the sky, then continued walking, eyes downcast. With Naraku wreaking havoc on the EM Alliance and the Dynasty, times were unsure at the best; having her older sister as well as her twin be Selected and her remaining unbonded didn't help any. Only Rie was sympathetic, being in a similar situation—though on a smaller scale, to be sure. And Rie would be Selected any day now, most likely by a Green. Rie never seemed the type for the higher levels.

Of course, she wasn't one to talk, being sixteen and unbonded. Some said it meant she would follow her mother's footsteps, and some said that all the ability had gone to her twin and not her. She never was as good as her twin.

Kagome knew he was coming even before the Alarm sounded. How, or why, she had no idea, but she knew.

"Kagome—Kagome! Is it one of your senses again?" Rie sounded nervous.

"He's coming," she replied, aghast. "Naraku's coming."

Right on cue, the siren started wailing. "We've got to get to the Preservexes," stammered Rie. "You know—the drill—"

"Right." They ran down the open halls, past the gardens, and careened around a corner, only to find a horrific sight: twenty bodies or more, all looking like they were asleep, the thick residual slime of miasma on the walls nearby.

"Come on!" They doubled back, not daring to cross the ground where the dead lay, and turned at another cross section. They were forced to change direction several times, finding patches of those dead or dying from the choking miasma.

A louder rumbling noise started to grow behind them. How had he gotten past the guards? Where were the Special Forces—the soldiers—the psions?

Her answer came as they were forced to cut across open ground: bodies littered the ground, some moaning softly as their lungs dissolved. All wore uniforms of some division of the army, killed to protect the people inside the building.

The rumbling grew louder, and as she looked back, she saw black snake-like tendrils wrapping around the Grand Chambers and tightening until first cracks appeared and then the whole dome shattered.

A hand reached out, grabbing her ankle, and she shrieked. It was a woman, blood starting to run from the corner of her mouth, and in her ruined hands she held a coarse sack. "Kag—Kago—Take—keep it—safe—" She slumped over, dead, and Kagome took the satchel with trembling hands, slipping the strap over her shoulder and looking inside. It contained seven round balls the size of two fists, each tinted a slightly different shade, and she knew immediately what they were.

"Let's go," she whispered. The necklace her mother had given her for her birthday was glowing slightly—she tucked it under her shirt for safe-keeping.

They ran on, then reached the Preservex Room. Her sisters had made it too, and they each climbed into one, the vapors rising up and the clear glastec panel sliding shut. The light over the panels were blinking yellow, indicating the capsule hadn't stabilized. Thousands upon thousands more Preservexes lay in wait in the room, metal cylinders with the clear panel as a doorway. They were structured to render the inhabitant unconscious and then run off the mental energy still being produced, making the machine itself indestructible once it had stabilized and allowing someone to stay locked in a moment for possible thousands of years without aging a day.

The light hadn't turned green yet when the black tendrils swarmed into the room. The crunch of glastec and metal twisting ran, cacophonic, through the air, the discord renting their ears. They were being destroyed, all of them—her people's last chance of escape—no, it couldn't be happening—

Tentacles wrapped around her sisters' Preservexes and wrenched them free just as a stone column toppled and debris rained from ceiling, burying both the cords and her sisters.

"NOOO!" Tears ran down her face. Her sisters—her sisters, dead—

Something shoved her towards one Preservex left standing. "Go!" Rie yelled.

"What—Rie?!"

"Get in there!" Her friend seized her wrist, dragging her faster. "You've got to survive," she said fiercely.

"No! Rie, you can't—"

Rie gave her a last push, her strength unexpected, and Kagome stumbled within the cylinder. The thump of a hand hitting the sealing button was confirmed by the click of the panel sliding shut behind her. Now only someone on the outside could release her. "Rie!"

"He can't get you, I swore to your mother that I'd save you at any cost."

Vapors started seeping up from the floor. "NO!"

The yellow reflection above showed it hadn't stabilized yet. Gritting her teeth, her friend drew the short blade from her hip and swept it in an arc, doing her best to fend off the advancing vines. Those that met her edge jerked back, writhing and dripping an ugly, sludge-like liquid.

Then a fresh surge poured through the entryway, the din of stone cracking and metal twisting rising to a fever pitch. The light turned green; Kagome was fighting off the stasis that was inevitable.

Then a tendril rammed through Rie, impaling her as she faced Kagome. She glanced down, surprised, and flecks of blood rained on the clear panel. A choking cough wracked her body, and a thin line of scarlet trickled out of her mouth. Her eyes locking with Kagome's for the last time, she said desperately, "Live."

"RIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE! NOOOOOO!"

How? How could it be she'd lost so much—in such a short time? Tears rolled down her face faster than ever as she watched Rie's eyes glaze over and her lifeless body fall before the Preservex.

And then he came.

His eyes were casual; he viewed the carnage around him with little interest. Then he glanced at her, still fighting the encroaching sleep, and moved closer, frowning. She backed up as far as she could, then realized with a sinking heart that if she truly was the last survivor, he would have to be the one to release her.

Naraku brought his face closer to the panel, two feet and a glastec panel the only thing between them, and she screamed from fear and revulsion, lavender eyes wide in horror. Then the vapors won her over, but not before her mind gave one last, panicked surge, then subsided, a soft white-pinkish light shining from beneath her over-tunic.

She never saw the brilliant flash of light that ripped Naraku in half. She never saw him shriek and vanish into fleeting shadows; never saw the black ropes dissolve into piles of ash; never saw the years pass and the cavernous room slowly collapse upon itself, then be built over entirely.

But for over a thousand years, she stayed frozen there, eyes wide open, pale violet littered in darker purple like the eyes of the undead.

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I know some thing's don't make sense yet like being 'bonded' or reference to a 'Green'. It's foreshadowing & will be explained in a later chapter.

psions is like psychic power instead of youki or rieki

I'm trying to fix the chaper breaks the format didn't copy right

Please read & review & PM please if u know the author! Thanks


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to 'Story Note' before chapter 1. Thanks

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APRIL 16, 6118 A.D. VALIANDESSA EVE OBRIEUN ACADEMY OF THE MARTIAL AND PSIONIC ARTS, NEO TOKYO

"Freak." The blonde boy folded his arms and waited for Inuyasha's reply.

"Screw off," the hanyou's companion suggested helpfully, twilight-purple eyes narrowed.

"And you're a freak too, Vacuum-boy." Sigof leaned forward, grinning maliciously. "Fur-reak."

"Oh, I get it, Inuyasha," Miroku said in the manner of one who has achieved enlightenment. "He's trying to speak to us in his native tongue. 'Freak' in the language of dumbasses must translate into 'sexy beast.' I'm sorry, Sigof, but my door doesn't swing that way."

Inuyasha gave his friend a warning look, but Sigof started forward, looking ready to kill.

In an instant, the white-haired boy had him by the collar and pinned against a locker. "I'm gonna tell you something right now," he growled, ears tense in anger. "And you'd better listen, and listen good, 'cause if you try anything again you can count yourself as twice as screwed. There is one stupid thing you can do at this school, and then there's the really stupid one. The first is to piss off Miroku." He put more pressure on the pale Sigof, who was starting to sweat. "The really stupid one is to piss off me." His eyes, once a golden orange like candle flame, had darkened to a reddish-orange in anger. "Are we clear?" Sigof muttered something that sounded vaguely like 'yes' and Inuyasha released him. "Get out of here."

After stumbling clumsily to his feet, the boy shouted, "You are freaks, both of you! And you're nothing special, you hanyou freak, just some jumped-up youkai's bastard who even killed his own—"

"Shut up, you idiot!" His cronies dragged him off, casting nervous looks over their shoulders as if the infamous duo were demigods who were waiting to let them think they got off and would then smite them.

"Oooh, I love breaking in the new ones," Miroku said smugly, absentmindedly tugging on his Restrictor. "All high and mighty till we pound them into the dirt."

"Quality entertainment," Inuyasha commented dryly, "I'm sure. Of course, you're the one who gets to spout off cunning little witticisms while I get to do the dirty work and act like the Big Bad."

"You know you love it," shot back Miroku. " 'I am Hanyou, hear me roar.'"

"Whatever. Are we going to stand around and talk, or are we going to get out schedules?" Without even waiting for his friend's reply, Inuyasha moved off.

The two had been friends for over ten years now, and were famous around the school: him being the son of forbidden union between the highest youkai warrior and the daughter of Neo Tokyo's Psionic Hime, Miroku being the last of his line, cursed with a genetic glitch that Naraku had found and amplified to a fatal degree. The black hole stayed sealed for the most part, but one day it would devour him and whoever was unlucky enough to be within fifty feet of the vortex. That was, at least, his running excuse for feeling up every girl he came across at his ripe age of sixteen, going on seventeen. They'd both been shunned, Miroku for his cursed hand, Inuyasha for his strange appearance and unwelcome heritage…and that he had been the only one to witness his parents' death, emerging from their room drenched head-to-toe in their blood. It hadn't taken very long for rumors to start flying that the little five-year-old hanyou had murdered his parents. Even the confirmation a year later that it was most likely Naraku hadn't stemmed the flow; it never helped that at sixteen he still refused to talk about it.

And then, the year before, it had happened all over again…

And Sesshoumaru, his renegade youkai half-brother who helped no one and did only as he wanted, causing chaos wherever he set his perfectly pedicured foot, seemed to be the perfect condemnation. If the older brother was no good, the other son of the Inu youkai who'd fought so valiantly and saved so many lives was going to be a monster, a threat to society. A mutt like him would never amount to much.

"Say something offensive," Miroku said suddenly. "You're quiet and it's creeping me out."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and refused to dignify that with a response. They reached the Transportation Shafts and each stepped into one, saying clearly, "Scanner Level." A light flicked on, showing that the anti-momentum module was working, then blinked off, and they stepped out. Before them was a huge room of Basic Scanners, computers that were connected to the inter-school network and that contained possibly all information that could be gathered from everything in the school with the exception of the dust bunnies.

Setting a hand palm-down on the panel, Inuyasha waited for the screen to load as Miroku did the same. "Genetic Scan complete: Inuyasha Dairei."

"Genetic Scan complete: Miroku Kurokuukan. Please select an option."

"I always feel so loved when I use these things," Miroku said regretfully. "They're the only things that are polite to me anymore."

"And one of these days someone'll program it to insult you like anything with biological or artificial intelligence does nowadays." Inuyasha pushed the School Data section waited impatiently. "Please select an option," the Scanners chimed again in unison.

Simultaneously they hit Schedule Printout, then tore off the procured sheets of paper.

"How's yours look?" Miroku asked, taking Inuyasha's before he responded and holding them up for comparison. "Exactly the same. Surprise, surprise." Ever since they'd been friends, Miroku had 'insured' they'd be in the same classes by throwing a tantrum in every class until they eventually switched him to all of his best friend's classes, until finally the teachers caught on and put them in the same classes, justifying their actions to their peers in the Teacher's Lounge by claiming that both the boys had lost their families and were clearly psychologically damaged, the least they could do was let them stick together. Inuyasha himself, with his sharp ears, had heard it through the thick door. Life at Valiandessa E. Obrieun Academy of the Martial and Psionic Arts, or VEO Academy for short, was easy enough once you figured out precisely how to work it.

"Y'know," Miroku said casually as they headed towards the other side of the room, "rumor is they built the school on the foundation of some old building they found here. If this is the bottom level"—he tapped his foot for emphasis—"then what d'ya think's underneath here?"

"Who cares?" Inuyasha shrugged.

"I do! What if there's a super-advanced weapon hidden underneath there that was lost in the First Apocalypse? Or Psionic secrets that could destroy Naraku for good? Or the secret to who or whatever kept him back for so long before?"

"There's nothing down there," Inuyasha snapped, irritated. Only Miroku could bring up the subject of Naraku in front of him after his parents' murder without being tossed into a wall "Just a lot of concrete, probably."

"But what if it's something else? What if—"

"What if you're full of shit and there's nothing but a bunch of rock down there?" Inuyasha stamped his foot against the floor in indication. "If there was something underneath the foundation they would have found it—" He would have commented further, but a resounding crack rang in the air, a shudder running beneath the soles of their boots.

That is, right before they discovered they were standing on air. Which, of course, did not last for very long before they dropped. Fast.

Inuyasha saw the ground rushing closer and braced himself, managing to slow the fall with his limited levitation abilities and seizing Miroku's arm, knowing his friend didn't have that luck and would have broken something. The pair hit the ground with a solid thump, raising an enormous cloud of dust, and after a few sneezes and as many gagging coughs, Miroku muttered, "Fantastic job, Inuyasha, you broke the school. So where are we?"

"Hell if I know." It was true enough: wherever they'd fallen, it was like nothing he'd ever seen before. Enormous stone columns either towered in the dark, cold vault or lay on their sides, riddled in cracks. Some were just piles of rubble. If there was a floor, it wasn't visible; it was just an endless sea of broken stone as far as the eye could see in the dim stream of light that came from the hole they'd made, some hundred feet up.

"How long do you think it'll take before someone finds us?" Miroku asked after a moment's pause, sounding faintly ill.

"Yet again, hell if I know." Inuyasha decided to do something rather than just stand around and pulled the Lumanite flashlight all the students had been issued since entry, sweeping it around in a broad arc. The chamber was huge, spacious enough to fit maybe a thousand people; more columns stretched on beyond the visible reach of the light.

Miroku prodded at a pile of dusty black granules in a strange cord-like formation, then bit back a yelp of surprise when it rang with the biting mental acidity Naraku reeked of. An idea came, and he said slowly, "Hey, Inuyasha, what if they didn't really build on the building's foundation, they built on what they thought was the foundation and there was really a lot more?"

"You think we just happened to fall into some ancient tomb or something, Miroku?" Inuyasha snorted. "I got news for you: the world doesn't work that way. People've probably been down here, decided it was a waste of cement to fill in, and built over it, end of story." Nevertheless, he started climbing the huge pile of rubble and twisted metal, headed for what looked like another column at the top.

It wasn't, though. A skeletal hand protruded from the heap, still clutching a blade about a foot and a half long that gleamed like it was newly-forged; he flinched and stepped to the side, wondering who had died fighting—and fighting what. Were they protecting something?

Taking another look, he made out wrought metal and the top of some kind of clear panel from what he'd thought was a column, but the inside was thick with some kind of fog and he couldn't see inside.

Moving quickly, he started pulling the pieces of broken stone away from it, trying his best to ignore the rest of the skeleton. The narrow hip bone and longer leg structure said it had been a girl—whatever this was, it had to be old: everyone knew girls couldn't fight. Was the empire whose ruins they were in that weak, that they used women as warriors? Once the rubble was gone, Inuyasha realized that there was no way anyone could have come before them. "Miroku, get over here!"

Miroku had been studying what looked like a control panel of some kind—there'd been several other detached ones lying around—and busily punching and flicking anything he could find. His friend's voice told him that whatever it was, it was urgent though, so he scrambled to his feet and headed over. "What is it?"

"Look!"

Huffing, Miroku raised his head, only to find something that, though he didn't know then, overturn the world as he, Inuyasha, and millions of others knew it.

A girl stared at them, wide light-lavender eyes blank. She didn't blink, didn't move, and yet somehow she was definitely alive.

The black-haired boy rapped on the strange panel with his knuckles. "Um…hello? We come in peace!" There was no reply except for the steady blinking of a green light, but that had been going since Inuyasha had found her.

"Now what?" Inuyasha asked after a moment.

"How did you put it?" said Miroku thoughtfully. "Oh yes: Hell if I know."

Giving his friend a dirty look, he leaned forward and examined the conrtol board. There were far too many buttons for him to even care to think about, but the large round one in the center was begging to be pushed, and after a much-too-short moment of deliberation, he pushed it.

"No!" Miroku yelled. "You idiot! You don't know what that—oh, shit!" The top snapped open, vapors billowing out, yet the girl didn't move and the clear door didn't budge. "You killed her! You killed the dead chick!"

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Sounds were swimming up through darkness but she couldn't move, couldn't respond, limbs frozen.

"Good going, genius!" Now instead of being in really deep shit for falling down here, we're in really really deep shit for killing the dead girl!" a panicked male voice cried.

"She's not dead, dumbass! The green-blinky-thingy's still going!" She would have laughed, but her voice and throat were numb… Her eyes hurt, strangely dry, the world starting to turn gray. With humongous effort, she dragged them closed. "OH MY GOD HER EYES MOVED!"

Who was she? Who were her parents, her family? Where was she…?

A name drifted across the empty void: Kagome…Kagome Higurashi. With it came dim images: a twin sister, an elder sister, a mother. Her father—he was dead. But they…were they gone? It hurt when she tried to think of them, her throat burning and heart aching. Only her name came to mind, none of theirs: she remembered hours of training her mind and body, a necklace, a bag of palely colored orbs: she recalled moves, actions, psionic spells, lessons embedded into her mind—but no names. Images, no names. Living in a strong fortress, her strong mother… One standing before her, dark, evil eyes…

Her mother…her strong mother…Why hadn't she saved her?

Exhaustion was dragging at her as the grate of the panel sounded, but she clung to that thought, stumbling forward. Why hadn't her mother saved her?

Mama didn't save me…

Something caught her—who-? "Mama…" she breathed, slipping gradually into the first true sleep she'd had in thousands of years.

"Aw, Inuyasha, you're a Mommy," a boy said mockingly.

"Shut up, Miroku." The voice rumbled within the fabric of whoever was holding her: deep, a bit rough, nice enough. Inuyasha…meant dog-demon, didn't it? Strange name.

But it wasn't her mother.

Total blackness swallowed her as the name resounded in her subconscious: Inuyasha…

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Please read and review. PM if u know the author.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note'before chapter 1. Thanks

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Miroku looked long and hard at the dim outline of the girl who had just fallen out of the cylinder-thing, then at Inuyasha, her "mommy." More accurately, how she was collapsed against him. This was the only girl in the school other than some of the teachers. "Hey, Inuyasha, you wanna trade places?"

"Fat chance," his friend growled, eyes a mixture of golden red and orange, betraying confusion and irritation. "What the hell is going on?"

"I dunno." Miroku leaned in for a closer inspection of the control panel, then frowned. "Look at this."

"What?" Shifting the strange girl, he peered over her back.

Miroku was pointing to two side-by-side counters. One said, "Current Date: October 25th, 6118." The other said, "Date of Initial Entry: March 26th,3076."

"But–that'd make her more than three thousand years old–that's impossible! She'd be dead! DEAD!"

"Hey, is anyone down there?!"

"Oh good, they found us." Miroku, glad for something to think about other than how old that girl was–it made his head hurt–began hurtling back down over the broken columns and rubble, nearly falling head over heels and breaking something several times. Inuyasha followed him more cautiously, adjusting his grip on the girl so he was carrying her instead of her being draped on him.

"Hey!" Miroku yelled. "We fell through this hole, and we found this dead chick and woke her up, and–yeah! So can you throw us down a rope or something? Cuz it'd kinda suck to be down here and rot away, you know…maybe you guys could throw us down food…"

"Your linguistic skills never cease to amaze," Inuyasha said dryly, stepping into the single patch of light. The girl's face was thrown into relief for the first time, and he glanced down.

She immediately was dropped with a thump, fortunately landing on a pile of sand and dust. "What kind of a damn trick is this?!" Inuyasha yelled, eyes burning orange-red in fury. "Is this some kind of joke?!"

Miroku scowled disapprovingly at him and knelt by the girl. "Careful, this's precious goods, dumbass! You aren't gonna find another real girl anywhere else in the sch–holy shit." He paled visibly, eyes widening. "It can't–no way…Kikyô…?"

The unnamed girl flinched, still asleep, then mumbled, "No…I'm Kagome… remember? We met…last Tuesday…"

"I wish," Miroku sighed, relaxing. "The only way it could've been–her–if was if it was a clone, and the penalties for that…"

After a moment, a still white-faced Inuyasha picked the girl up. What had she said her name was? He couldn't just call her 'that girl,' though that would set her apart from 95% of the school's population.

"I'm…Kagome." Clearly something was still plaguing her dreams, for her look was one of unconscious concern. "No…that's my sister…"

"Kagome, huh?" he muttered to himself. "Welcome to the sixth millennium."

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The light was bright, too bright…She didn't want to open her eyes.

"She's sustained considerable damage to her eyes, but they're healing rapidly thanks to the serum. Her muscles haven't decayed at all, and according to all data, she's perfectly healthy. The one thing in question is the problems the mechs had at first–they had to be granted psionic wardings, as if she gives off…mental radiation, as it were. What that means, I do not know. It may be that she is a fairly strong psion; it may mean that what you found her in was imbued with psionic energy in order to preserve the occupant."

Where was she? Who was she? Her name was Kagome Higurashi…she had a twin and an older sister, and her mother…

One Soul–

–"I promised nothing would happen–"

–And she walks of light–

–Mama didn't save me–

Pain racked her head, burning and agonizing enough to make her scream and convulse instinctively, shuddering. It was as if a thousand needle-thin white-hot spikes were boring into her skull all at once, and it went on and on–she thrashed, losing control of herself in her pain.

Sparks lit up behind her eyelids, crackling coming from the room, as well as shouts of surprise and dismay. Something strong seized her and pulled her into a sitting position, holding her tightly as if partly to still her erratic movements and partly to shield her from the unseen danger, though bursts of light still pulsed against the darkness. Then they and all the lights vanished altogether, the room plunged in blackness.

"I think it's safe to say that it wasn't the preserving thing that had the mental radiation," a voice said weakly–one that she recognized as the boy Miroku. She was laid back in a sitting position, leaning against the headboard of the bed.

It wasn't too bright anymore: she opened her eyes. Everything was a sea of shadows with dimmer outlines that began to form people. Lights, duller this time, flickered on.

Wide eyes stared at her, more than a little apprehensive. Kagome laughed nervously, surprised at the sound of her own voice. "Um…whoops?"

"That, my dear girl, is almost the understatement of the century." A white-bearded old man removed his glasses and polished them on his coat. "In fact, it is second only to when our friend Inuyasha here merely stated that Miroku likes girls. That was the understatement of the century."

She looked dazedly about–nothing remotely familiar was in sight. "Where am I? Who are you?"

"You're in Neo Tokyo," the doctor–she presumed he was a doctor–said soothingly. "This is V. E. Obrieun Academy for the Martial and Psionic Arts."

"I've never heard of it," Kagome said slowly.

"You wouldn't have. Your name is Kagome, yes?" At her automatic nod, he continued, tone gentle. "This may be quite a shock for you, Kagome. It was 3076 when you entered that preservation capsule of yours, wasn't it?"

"Yes." Her voice was just more than a croak now. Had it been three years? Ten, maybe? She had no recollection of how long those capsules worked or how long they were meant to last.

"The year is now 6118. It's been 3042 years since you fell asleep."

"Beg–beg pardon?"

"Just over three thousand years," he repeated. "Quite a lot has changed. It seems you are the only living survivor of the First Apocalypse–we don't have written record of anything from 2005 to 3080, and it's really quite vexing, for all major buildings and information banks were demolished and entire libraries obliterated. Whatever you can remember, then–when you're up to it, of course–would be very helpful."

"Three…thousand?" She shook her head in disbelief. "That can't be right."

There was a long stretch of silence as she grappled with the information. Everyone she had known…everyone she'd cared for….even though she only had fragments of memories, those fragments were of things and people long dead and long buried. Her home, her family, the ways of life she barely remembered–all gone.

The brief fizzle was the only warning the occupants of the room had before a piece of machinery lifted up, hovered uncertainly for a moment, then slammed into the wall. It was followed by a chair; Kagome, lost in her grief and confusion, was oblivious to the deathtrap the room was steadily becoming, spurred by her own uncontrolled powers. She'd learned the ways of discipline and mastered potential psionic arts, but she'd never used it with real power, power like that which surged from her now.

It took all but a few seconds for Miroku, Inuyasha, the principal who hadn't spoken yet and the doctor to scramble out of the room and shut the door. Electricity lashed the walls, ripping chunks out of them; pieces of equipment danced crazily around the room, though nothing touched the girl in the bed, hands over her face, black hair floating slightly. Her shoulders shook, and you could tell she was both terrified and grief-stricken. The lights weren't even on anymore except directly over Kagome, lending an eerie blue-white light from the pulsating electricity to the room and its franticly undulating shadows.

Oddly, instead of being angry of fearful, Inuyasha himself felt sorry for her. Like Miroku and himself, she

had lost all of her family, but they had had their own world to hang onto. For her, she had nothing–a strange world, a strange time, and nothing of her old life. The chances that her bloodline could be traced back far enough to locate any relatives was slim, if not impossible. She had nothing.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door, ignoring protests from the others, and walked inside, ducking the large and heavy piece of machinery hurled his way. A stethoscope whipped past, followed by tongue depressors and a DNA sampler. Wind built up from nowhere, trying to force him out. He stolidly ignored it and fought his way to Kagome's side.

Standing within three feet of her was like being in the eye of a hurricane. "Kagome. Listen to me," he said firmly. There was no need to raise his voice; outside sound was muffled in the circle of peace, giving it near silence. Kneeling next to her, he held onto her shoulder with a firm but not painful grip. "Take a deep

breath and calm down."

"Calm down?!" Her voice was distorted by her pain and her hands. "I have nothing! I should be dead right now with the rest of my family! I remember nothing except my name and little pieces that mean nothing to me! Don't bloody tell me to calm down!"

Can't argue with that, Inuyasha reflected with a cringe. The small area that was unaffected by Kagome was shrinking… "Look up, Kagome–" he was forced to raise his voice as noise suddenly flooded in "–you've gone out of control! Calm down! Miroku and I both lost our families and we got through it, you have to too!" Why was he saying this to a girl he hardly knew? Did it have something to do with her eerie resemblance to Kikyô? "I saw my mother and father murdered in front of me when I was five, you think

that was easy for me? But I didn't go nuttier than a fruitcake and start blowing up things, which you are! Snap out of it!" [AN: Ah, Inuyasha, and his way with words…-_-;;;]

She looked up, eyes shimmering with tears and now a liquid dark silver, mottled with deep purple, lavender, and silver-purple. With a start, he realized that her eyes changed colors with her moods like his. No one else's did–just theirs.

With a thud, everything abruptly stopped moving and dropped where it was. The lights slowly returned with a sense-dulling gray hue. Wide eyes watched them through the glastec window in the door, then it slowly opened again. "…Hello," Miroku said slowly. "Please don't hurt me."

"It wasn't on my agenda," Kagome said hoarsely. Her mind was spinning, but it was no longer the catatonic whirlwind it had been. The pain had edged off somewhat, and knowing that she had to keep herself calm until she could get her powers under control gave her something to do, something to take her mind off of it.

Where had the powers come from? She hadn't had any before she'd gone into the capsule, she knew that for certain…all she'd learned was how to use them if they ever actualized.

As they undeniably were now.

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Please read and review. PM if u know the author.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note' before chapter 1. Thanks

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The Psionic Hime flipped over the snow globe carefully, watching the white particles drift down in a flurry around an opalescent palace. It was a relict of the times before the First Apocalypse, the unknown era. Something in that time had destroyed Naraku to the point that he was out for a millennia and a half; if only they knew what it was, how to find something that would work and buy them more time…

Slowly, something began to grow on the edge of her senses, near the VEO Academy. With a sigh, she set the snow globe down. Doubtless, one of the rascals had unleashed a minor weapon of some sort or the like. If it were her grandson again, however, it would be another matter entirely.

He had no malice in him, only anger at the world for turning on him as fast as it had. The poor boy, only half belonging to each world, never fully belonging somewhere. Inuyasha's fate was not kind; if his parents still lived, they at least could have softened the blow of the uncaring world.

Now it had grown into something larger. A furrow appeared between graying eyebrows, and dark eyes moved to a window that looked out in the direction of the school. It was as if she had suddenly forgotten how to keep the powers she had in check and fueled them with anger…but…perhaps…bigger…?

Those dark eyes closed again and she left her body, a risky thing, but this was beginning to constitute a necessity for risk-taking.

Images floated into her mind. She saw a young girl, with her head in her hands, and the smoky auras of pain wrapped tightly around her. If the Psionic Hime didn't know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it could not possibly be Kikyô, she would have sworn it was. Inuyasha was at her side, speaking forcefully, and she caught a glimpse of the ruin the room was in. Machinery flying in wild disarray…It would take a psion of enormous power to move things like that, one as strong as her daughter had been and one like Inuyasha now.

The nameless girl looked up, and the roaring sensation halted. Her eyes were bewildering, their multitude of colors shifting even as she tried to pin it down–also like Inuyasha's. Her grandson held a wealth of power within him, a source so vast she had neither seen nor heard of anyone on his level before. His father, a strong youkai, and his mother, her own daughter, and with their genes and the forces at play had been spun a soul and child that legends would speak of for millennia.

This girl had just surpassed him.

More images came, faster–this girl being released, her muttering something, the lights flickering, the control panel on some sort of machine.

She withdrew to her body, shaking her head. What had Inuyasha and Miroku awoken deep beneath their school? Where could she put this child so that she was safe from Naraku?

Well…what better place than a building of trained warriors? Or at least, warriors-in-training.

She summoned up a screen, and her secretary's face flashed up, looking pleasantly bored. "Yes, Ma'am?"

"Contact the principal of the VEO Academy and tell her to keep the girl they found inside the school on my orders and under Inuyasha's protection. And when she gets the chance, she must call me."

"Yes, ma'am." The screen vanished and the old woman was left fingering the snow globe, watching a last few flakes fall and wondering what the future was bringing them.

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"What's this?"

For what was not the first time, Inuyasha let out an inward sigh and turned back to where Kagome was staring at a MRU–Maintenance Robotic Unit–with bewilderment. "Cleaning robot," he said with a sigh

as the squat, round mech rolled past them with a cheerful whistle, halting at a stain up ahead. "The floors are coded to alert one when there's a mess, though as a rule they don't take care of our rooms. Someone had a field day for Senior Prank when they recoded the stupid things to clean the students, not the floors, and filled the water compartment with paint."

Kagome snorted into her hand as they continued, then halted in front of a strange and elaborate-looking contraption. "What's this?"

"Water fountain," he said dryly, wondering how it had been that the principal decided he would be better to show Kagome around the school. After they were done, on orders of the Psionic Hime she was to be enrolled and taught like any other student.

Except that she was a girl. In a military academy–for boys.

Inuyasha mentally shook his head. She didn't seem like the fighter type and would have been much better off at the traditional school for girls with psionic powers, Halisyen Irali Thesallu Young Women's Academy of the Psionic Arts. That was all that they were allowed to do these days, women–psionic fighting was allowed for both genders, but physical combat and flying the Dragonships were only for the men. It had to be that way for a reason, but he'd never taken the time to find out. It wasn't likely that Kagome would be of much use in anything but battles that required psions.

He was well past a corner when he realized Kagome hadn't followed. He was on his way back when he realized there were voices coming from her direction and they were distinctly not female.

Kagome gritted her teeth. Apparently, some freshmen had taken the same attitude that Miroku had towards her–in a sense. He saw her as being the only girl they were going to meet for a while; they saw her as the only girl they were going to use for a while, from the looks on their faces.

"Hey, hey, don't be like that," laughed one, grinning widely at her glower. "We just want to get to know ya."

"Sounds fine," she said, seemingly calm. "I'll start. Meet Mr. Fist." There was a crack as she connected with one's nose, sending him sprawling back. That sent the other three into action–one seized her by an arm, another lifting her up by her thrashing feet. She twisted and dug her teeth into the last one's arm, but he seized her by her hair and jerked viciously. "You little bitch," he said nastily. "Serves you right, coming here. We're going to show you the only thing that women are really good for."

"I distinctly recall saying that the most stupid thing you can do at this school, Sigof, is piss off me," Inuyasha said, his tone inscrutable. The blond boy let go of her hair and swore.

She used the distraction to her advantage. Resting her weight on the boy who had her arm, she slammed both feet into the chest of the one who had previously held onto her legs, then drove her free fist into the stomach of her other captor, who released her and fell to his knees, his wind gone. With a swift sweep of a leg she neatly knocked the blond Sigof off of his feet and got to her feet, glowering down at him. "I wouldn't recommend trying that again," she said slowly. "I don't remember names well, but I'd rather not make another set of introductions when we already know each other."

This time, it was Inuyasha who was left behind as she sauntered past, the look on his face dumbstruck. Then he shook his head and blinked several times, convinced his cursed psionic powers had stirred on their own and sent him off into Trippy Land.

"You coming?" Kagome's voice echoed down the hall. "I don't want to get lost."

There was Sigof and his cronies, lying on the ground. There was the drinking fountain and the MRU. It had been no hallucination.

He wheeled around to face Kagome. "What was that just now?"

She shrugged, casual. "I learned how to fight. In my time, everyone needed to."

He fished a coin out of his pocket and flicked it at her, hard enough that it moved with enough speed to make it difficult for a normal person to block yet not with enough force behind it to hurt. She caught it, fist moving in a blur well before it got within six inches of her, and inspected it with an eye that swirled with smoky blue-gray and the royal blue of dusk. If he was bored, one day he'd have to start memorizing what each eye color meant…

But she had phenomenal powers and the reflexes of a demon. And she wasn't evil. Either some deity had decided to stop pissing on their lives for a break, or there was a catch.

Kagome gave the coin a flip, caught it neatly, and tossed it back to him. "Where to next?"

"Um…the library," he muttered. Was this really his life?

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Miroku scowled at the WhiteScreen the teacher was scribbling on, taking notes on the structure of a Luminantine Thruster. You know, in case the one on a Dragonship blows up so we can climb out and put it back together, then climb back in and kick more enemy ass.

It wasn't fair…Why did Inuyasha get to be the one to get to escort Kagome around? His mind automatically presented him with two reasons, the first being that Inuyasha was the best Dragonship pilot they had and didn't really need any classes on it, the other being that they had probably had his history with women in mind.

The hiss and clack of the class door sliding open drew his attention, and to his surprise Inuyasha and Kagome walked in, Inuyasha looking–for the first time–slightly overwhelmed and Kagome wide-eyed.

Immediately every eye in the room was on her. There was a Girl. In their school. She paid no heed.

"What's the issue, Dairei?" snapped the professor, whose eyes then landed on Inuyasha's companion. His face promptly turned a unique shade that was best described as 'prune.'

The Head Commander strode in, boots clicking smartly on the floor. She looked to be about thirty or so, hair pulled back and wound into a tight bun. To men everywhere, she was sexless; the only female to ever pilot a Dragonship in a battle. It had been an emergency, and now she was restricted to merely training young men to fly them and helping plan and oversee battles, but that had neither lengthened her short fuse nor dulled her sharp tongue. She'd been an amnesiac, found wandering around the city, devoid of memory and homeless, taken in by a prominent family and discovered to be a strong psion. The fact that she'd outflown most trained soldiers in the battle with no knowledge of how the aircraft worked didn't matter to the lawmakers and those who decided her fate after the battle; it was only that she was female and she had flown a Dragonship.

Commander Kaede ignored the startled glances from the male adolescents and marched up to the professor. In the year since the death of her adopted sister, her eyes had taken a more aged and sorrowful cast, but it hardly showed now.

Until Kagome turned around.

"Ki–Kikyô?!" Commander Kaede stumbled back, paling, calm shaken for once.

Pain shot through Kagome's skull again, forcing her to her knees as she clutched her head. The strange woman–somehow she was tied to this–

The lights flickered dangerously as Inuyasha swiftly knelt and shook her. "Kagome, snap out of it! Get yourself under control!" Turning to Kaede, he barked out, "She's not Kikyô. She's the one that was found beneath the Scanner level."

Kagome shuddered at the repeat of that name. Why was it so familiar? What was causing this pain? "I'm…not Kikyô," she said softly to herself, though not knowing why. The throbbing pain was slowly fading as she found herself being steered into an office and lowered into a chair. In the background floated swift and fierce talking, voices she could recognize as Inuyasha's, the professor's, and that strange woman's. Her eyes cleared and she sat up straighter, blinking.

"Are you all right?" The woman was staring down at her, eyes full of an unnamed emotion.

"Yeah." Where had she seen her before? It couldn't have been someone from her time, but why did she seem so familiar? She could feel her eyes shifting from pale lavender to dusty blue, mingled with blue-purple–light blue when she was thoughtful, combined with the twilight shade of surprise. Silvery-purple bubbles were also emerging from near her pupil as she turned the paradoxical eyes to the room's other occupants.

The principal regarded her with a level gaze, dark gray eyes also thoughtful; the professor was still there, looking ready to have an ulcer; Inuyasha was watching her, eyes bright gold mingled with a hint of orange; and a few other people were there. Every person in the room was watching her.

A grizzled old man muttered something about it being preposterous that they were making an exception for her, but was shut up by the Commander's swift glare. "My name is Kaede," she said coolly, cutting the elderly soul off. "I'm the Head Commander here and I'm responsible for the strategy and execution of any battles within our immediate area. That–" she waved a gloved hand at the professor "–is Professor Sasaki, engineering expert and Head Mechanic. The old geezer over there's Toutousai, oldest teacher we've got and weapons expert. He knows about fifty different ways to blow this school up and, disturbingly, has the means to do it."

"And don't you forget it," he croaked warningly.

"Oh, go drink your prune juice," she retorted. "You've already met Principal Ginme, and that's Professor Hanesuzu, Head Psion. And then that woman is Sayako Gohoshi, Psionic Hime of the Neo Tokyo Prefecture."

Kagome suddenly felt very small and very stupid, not for any particular reason, just because she was in the presence of the most powerful people in the school.

"I still consider this an outrage," Professor Sasaki growled. "A female to be taught in this school? It's indecent–amoral! What kind of society would permit such a thing? And what of the school's reputation?!"

"She will be taught," Hime Gohoshi said firmly. "Like any other person, she must learn every way to defend herself. And as a survivor of the First Apocalypse, she runs great risk of Naraku coming after her in order to silence any dormant memories of what suppressed him for the thousand and five hundred years. We cannot allow for her to be undereducated like the rest of the female population."

"It is unthinkable! She is a danger to the school and to her classmates! She is more likely to fly a Dragonship into a wall than use it to kill a single one of Naraku's fighters! And the females of today have all the self-defense education that they need!"

"Have you viewed the recent fatality rates?" Kaede demanded, tone challenging, and Kagome instantly realized this was the heart of an old, old debate. "More women have been killed in battle or not by Naraku's forces than men. That doesn't sound like 'all the self-defense education that they need' to me!"

"It would help if they weren't weaker than men," sneered Sasaki, who Kagome was very quickly losing respect for.

"Now is not the time, Commander," Hime Gohoshi said tiredly.

"When is, Hime?"

"There is no time!" Sasaki bellowed. "As our inferiors there is no need for women to learn any more than they know now and I refuse to let this whelp into my classroom! She will be educated in the school that all Psionic girls belong in and, so help me, never set foot in a Dragonship! Women never were meant to be soldiers and never will be!"

"Um–excuse me?" Kagome swallowed as suddenly every eye in the room was once again on her. "In–in my time–I don't know why I'm remembering this, but–we let women fight as well as men–"

"And that is why everyone in your time is dead," Sasaki shot out.

She drew back slightly, paling, and a flurry of yelling broke out between the professor, Kaede, and the Psionic Hime, though Kagome said nothing. Then silence fell as an undercurrent of displacement pulsed through the air, swelling until it was almost tangible, ringing out from the shivering black-haired girl in the chair, head tilted down, every muscle tense. The lights died, then spat a few sparks, and Inuyasha muttered, "Now he's done it."

With a pop and a shower of glass, the light fixture over Sasaki shattered, then the mirror, the picture frame, any light bulbs and cups–anything made of either glass or porcelain burst like bubbles. The sparks flew faster over Kagome's head, whirling into a cyclone that danced ferociously around her seated form.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled, shielding his eyes from the flying shards. "How many times do we have to go through this? Pull yourself together!"

It all died down and Kaede shook her head to clear the debris from her hair, then said pointedly, "Inferior. Yeah. Sure."

"That–that was a fluke!" he protested. "She couldn't do it again!"

Kagome, still shaking, glared up at him, and suddenly he was lifted into the air. He yelped like a dachshund and thrashed wildly, and she dropped him into his chair.

"Kagome, perhaps it would be best if you waited outside," Hime Gohoshi suggested tentatively, still more than a bit awed.

There was a thud as a student-issue Dragonship Construction, Care and Piloting Manual was dropped onto the desk. "You read that, I'll test you on it, and then we'll talk," commanded Professor Sasaki.

"That's not fair!" protested Kaede. "The boys have had four years to study that text!"

He shrugged. "That's my condition, take it or leave it."

A still-trembling hand pulled the five-pound book off the desk, eyes determined and large in her white face. She's got guts, Toutousai reflected grudgingly. And a shitload of power, but Sasaki asked for that one. Is she really going to go over that entire volume? That'll take her months, maybe years…Stubborn little thing.

Then everyone watched in surprise as she rested her hand on the cover and sent a blue-white ripple through the book that shoved through it, then returned to her hand. Her eyes closed in concentration, and then they opened, indigo dotted with turquoise–irritation and smugness. "Done. Let's talk."

After a moment, he pulled out another copy and flipped to a random page, then demanded, "What's on page 435?"

Her brow ferrowed, then she smiled and said cheerily, "A diagram of the structure of the Laser Whiskers and a few paragraphs on the different ways to use it."

"790?"

"…The formulas and measurements for a wing…and what exactly to use to sharpen the leading edge."

"271?"

"Oh, that's easy–which booster does what, what fuels they run on, advantages and disadvantages…"

"She doesn't need much work on Martial Arts," Inuyasha said, the first time he'd contributed to the conversation. "Some freshmen tried something on her when we got separated and she beat the shit out of 'em. And she's got good reflexes for a human."

Sasaki tried the same coin trick as Inuyasha had and was surprised. Then he chucked three of them at her. Her arms moved in a blur, and a moment later she dropped all four coins back in his hand.

"I just need to get used to having power," she said quietly. "I remember everything I was taught when it came to psionics, but they way I learned was like learning a series of fighting techniques and mastering them. Using them in a fight is something else altogether." She shrugged. "I'm getting used to it."

"The hospital room she left behind will never be the same," Principal Ginme commented dryly as Kagome turned red.

"And she's got quite a bit of power," Professor Hanesuzu said, speaking for the first time. "It would be more to our advantage to train her as much as we can."

"I don't mind," Toutousai mumbled gruffly. "Boy or girl, it don't matter."

There was a brief moment of silence, and then Sasaki's shoulder's slumped in defeat. "I'll be damned," he groused. "Fine, fine. Have it your way."

She wanted to cheer. Whatever had just been decided, it was good, she knew. Perhaps her old home had been destroyed, but now another one was beginning to rise from the ashes.

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Please read and review. PM if u know the author.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer : I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note ' before chapter 1. Thanks

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Boys. Everywhere, there were boys—making fart jokes, jostling each other, scarfing down food—all being so…gross. Kagome had the sneaking suspicion that the pinnacle of their adolescent humor was somewhere around "Poop…Haha…" [AN: This description excludes any mature members of the male gender, by the way…Though the 'poop-haha' thing was actually a point made by the guy that sat in front of me in Japanese class.]

With a sigh, she picked up a tray and headed for the nearest metal box that they called a Nutrition Scanner, its occupant stepping out as she arrived. "NEXT." A door slid open and she hesitantly entered; once inside, a horizontal line ran from her head to her toes. "PLEASE IDENTIFY."

"Kagome Higurashi."

"INVALID. PLEASE SCAN IDENTIFICATION CARD."

She scowled and fished it out, sliding it into the slot. I hate being the new kid.

"STUDENT IDENTIFICATION FOR KAGOME HIGURASHI. RESCANNING." The horizontal line flashed over her again, and a moment later there was a thunk as food landed in front of her. "MORE PROTEINS AND CALCIUM REQUIRED. LUMATIN VITAMIN ADDED FOR PSIONIC ABILITY. THANK YOU. HAVE A NICE DAY." She picked up her food and stepped out, looking hesitantly around.

It didn't take long for all ten thousand pairs of eyes in the cafeteria to turn to her. Some boys looked apprehensive, some resentful, some fearful, others merely curious. But almost every boy in the school was looking at her.

Near-silence descended for a long, long moment. Then someone yelled, "Wrong school, moron!"

"Shut up!" In the tense quiet, everyone could hear his companion's harsh whisper. "That girl practically destroyed a hospital room without touching a thing! She'll kill you!"

"Bull," the first one said flatly as mutters swept around the vast hall. Kagome swallowed, rooted to the spot, her mind and limbs frozen.

"No girls!" another boy jeered after a second. Others joined in.

"We don't want you!"

"Go back to your girl school!"

"Whore!"

"She couldn't even lift a wrench!"

"Hey girl, I've got a dollar!"

"Girls are weak! Get out of here!"

The lights began to flicker in response to her whirlpool of emotions, her nerves frayed. She closed her eyes and counted to ten; all it did was steady the lights. She would lose control at this rate, and while a large smoking crater in the floor would silence her opposition, she didn't think it would go over too well with the principal.

Perhaps this was the best time to show them all she wasn't going to be pushed around, though. An idea came to mind and she took in a deep breath, closing her now dark blue eyes and blocking out the jeers. This wasn't going to take as much power as it would precision, or she could end up with fairly nasty results.

The spell wove in her mind, spreading out over the room in invisible wires, like an immense sheet of incorporeal silk. Any psions felt it, and an uneasy undertone ran throughout the muttering.

Lifting a hand, she snapped her fingers sharply—and immediately every sound in the room halted. Every sonic vibration was caught and stilled by the wires, bringing the dull roar of the cafeteria to an abrupt halt. Mouths moved, boys looking frantically at each other, and she waited in silence for a beat, then strode down the aisle between tables, chin high. There was no clack when she set her tray down on the surface of an empty table, nothing at all as she sat down, let a second or two pass, then looked up and snapped her fingers again.

Noise flooded back in, though by now very little of it was coming from any vocal cords.

It was lunchtime, Kagome was hungry, and she wasn't going to put up with the sexist nonsense that they had apparently gotten into their heads. She picked up what looked like a fruit and bit into it experimentally, staring ahead as she chewed. What bothered her most right now was how little she knew about this time, coupled with the fact that she really was the only girl her age in the entire school, and no self-respecting male was going to want to speak with her. Inuyasha had been polite enough to show her around, but he was nowhere in sight now and he would mot likely have nothing to do with her.

She knew too little now, far too little, and she was at a disadvantage because of both her sex and her raw newness. And it didn't look like she was getting any friends from the rest of the school's population.

What kind of life was she going to have?

There was a clatter, and the table shook. Startled, Kagome looked up, only to find Miroku across from her, almost obscenely cheerful. "Mind if I sit here?" he asked, an honest grin on his face. "Nice move with making those clowns shut up for once, by the way."

"…Um…thanks?" Taken aback, she slowly said, "Sure…you can sit here if you want."

His grin widened further. "If you can keep those idiots quiet for more than ten seconds, I wouldn't care if you had oil dripping out your nose and a fetish for chewing on shoes."

"Hey!" someone at another table protested. "Shoes taste good!"

She blinked for a moment, then slowly began to laugh. "You know, we've never been formally introduced. I know you're Miroku because Inuyasha told you to shut up, and I heard you say he was a mommy, but that's about it."

"You don't say." Miroku stuck out his hand, beads jangling, and she shook it briskly. "Miroku Kurokuukan, human vacuum and resident comic relief." After a moment, he added hopefully, "And most eligible bachelor in the entire school."

"Nice try," she said dryly. "Kagome Higurashi, human bomb and resident…girl, I guess. What was that bit about being a vacuum again?"

He sighed. "Long story."

"I've got time." She took another bite out of the fruit-thing.

"Fine by me." He rested his chin on his hand. "You've heard of Naraku, right?" She nodded, feeling a twinge in the back of her mind. The name rang a bell, though she couldn't quite place it. "He's a youkai lord, absolutely brilliant, and…well, evil." Miroku flicked at the rope of beads around his right hand absently. "He's been around since before your time, we estimate, and he's an evil mastermind. Somewhere around when you were put in that capsule-thing, there was something we call the First Apocalypse, where someone—maybe Naraku—unleashed an attack that wiped out more than sixty percent of the world's population and completely destroyed banks of information and technology. There are literally no records of anything before then, but we haven't been able to search every place on earth, so there's still speculation. The one thing is, something hit him hard enough in the middle of it to not only stop his attacks cold, but almost kill Naraku himself. There are a few accounts of people talking about battling youkai and Naraku's miasma, only to see the miasma turn to ash before their eyes and the youkai lose any control. There was some sort of weapon they had back then that was supposedly extremely effective against miasma, but it's lost now and it wasn't what got Naraku in the end. He was gone—in hiding, in recovery, gathering an army, no one knows—for fifteen hundred years after that. Still, there are places on earth so violently charged with both psionic and youkai energy from battles in the First Apocalypse. Those places have such extreme concentration of energy remaining that it will overwhelm anything that takes one step onto the land it'll kill you. If a youkai steps on psion-charged land, they disintegrate, and if a psion steps onto that land the energy tries to drain into them and they…well…explode. It isn't pretty, and since everyone now has at least a fragment of psionic blood they can't go in, even if they have no actual powers." He shook his head. "Hokkaido—all of it—is one of those places. Same with northern Russia, Mali in Africa, Taiwan, most of the South Pacific Islands and the Philippines, parts of Australia and New Zealand, former cities in North America—I think Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York are the main ones—and Brazil and the Andes Mountains."

Kagome took that in for a moment, eyes pale blue in thought, then asked, "So what happened after the First Apocalypse?"

"People rallied under the provisional government and elected…Alexandrielle Varand, I think, as the president, and the Recovery began, where every country agreed that for a hundred years they were going to keep from war at all costs so we could regroup. Beyond that…well, let's see… There was a joint effort with Mars and Earth's combined psions, and they managed to pull Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Uranus, and Neptune in alignment on Earth's orbit or near it so they were actually in the range of the sun that it would take for a planet to be habitable. They started solidifying and becoming similar to Earth, and war broke out over ownership. That was the Hundred Year War… Oh, there was a law passed before then by some schmuck that said women couldn't fight physical battles and were only allowed to use their psionic powers in a battle, in order to lower female death rates and ensure procreation." He rolled his eyes. "Completely pointless and all it's got us is a prejudice that women can't fight. I've seen both the Psionic Hime and Commander Kaede in action. I know better. Anyway, there's a war, it ends and leaves all the planets in a mess, and then this woman comes up. Her name's Valiandessa Eve Obrieun, and she's got psychic ability up the wazoo. She manages to pull everyone together and establishes the system we have today: every land mass is divided into Districts—ours is Neo Tokyo—and governed by the strongest Psion deemed acceptable; they're the Psionic Prince or Princess. Right now we've got a Psionic Hime, and—" He paused, as if debating something, then said, "—they tend to run in families. The people elect a Senator for their District and there's a Senatorial President for each Cluster—ten to twelve Districts—and the Senatorial Presidents meet here, in Neo Tokyo. They elect a Representative and two Candidates, one for Ambassador of Sol—our planetary system; the Ambassador acts as diplomat to other planetary systems—and the other for the Emperor. And they choose the next Psionic Ruler. The Representatives and Candidates from every planet meet every five years and choose the Emperor and the Ambassador of Sol. Neo Tokyo is also the meeting place for the Planetary Conjunction. Anyway, this Valiandessa lady, she makes the system, and then she's elected first Psionic Hime, then Senator, and rises through the ranks until she eventually becomes the Empress and the Ambassador. I think she was the only one who could memorize an entire language using her psion powers." He glanced at Kagome, who was looking away, biting her lip. "You can too, can't you?"

She nodded, embarrassed. "Yeah."

He laughed. "Go figure. So a few years after Valiandessa dies, Naraku comes back, but Earth's no cupcake now. Still, we get hit pretty hard, and people realize we need to be better trained. They open up this school, name it after Valiandessa, and open another one for girls and name it for the current Psionic Hime. There are a few battles, and for the past 2400 years or so, we've been fighting him. Right now, we're in a bit of a slump—he hasn't attacked in a few months. But my grandfather was in a fight and Naraku discovered a hereditary genetic defect; it got amplified; and it's been passed down and will keep on being passed down through my line until Naraku's dead. There's a black hole, of sorts, in my hand, and without a Psionic Binding it flies open and pulls in anything nearby. It gets bigger every year and someday it'll kill me if Naraku doesn't die, soooo…." He grinned widely. "Gives me an excuse to get married early. I'm the only one left."

A small smile appeared on Kagome's face. "Us last survivors have to stick together, huh?"

"Yep." He looked around. "Speaking of survivors, where's Inuyasha?"

Right on cue, a figure in red walked over, a scowl on his face. "Wander off, why don't you?"

"I was just talking with Kagome, here," Miroku said innocently. "You know, getting her caught up."

Flame-orange eyes flicked over to her, then back at the violet-eyed young man. "Hitting on her, you mean?"

"No, actually, she shot me down," he said regretfully. "Sit, boy. Talk with us. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we diet."

The scowl deepened a little, but nevertheless Inuyasha sat down next to him. "How's your first day been going?" he asked Kagome, eyes shifting to a gold-shot orange.

"Oh, standard," she said lightly. "Warm welcoming, if you ask me."

"Oh yeah!" Miroku turned to Inuyasha, excited. "She can actually make them stop talking! She completely shut down all the noise in the room! It was great!"

She took another bite, this time of a roll, as Inuyasha glanced at her again, and she shrugged, flushing. "Could you do it again?" She nodded, mouth full, and held up a hand.

Swallowing, she said, "I could, and really, anyone could—it's just more a matter of being careful and knowing what you're doing then just raw power."

Something sticky and wet hit her in the back of the head, and she let out a startled yelp. Putting a tentative hand to whatever it was, she found a large, oozing blob, and when she pulled it back she found clear goo on her fingers.

Inuyasha leaned forward and sniffed, eyes burning orange-red, face dark with anger. "Frog youkai spit," he announced.

Miroku looked over Kagome's shoulder to see a boy with large yellow eyes and green hair laughing, his friends muffling their laughter as well, and nudged Inuyasha. Inuyasha got to his feet, tray in hand, and muttered to Kagome, "Duck."

The tray was expertly thrown over her head, spinning in air and striking the boy in the chin, sending him skidding down the table, knocking other trays off and onto his friends. They stared at him, then at Inuyasha, who calmly dusted his hands and sat down.

"Another round eyeball bites the dust," Miroku said, just as calmly. Picking up his fork, he shoveled a load of noodles into his mouth and slurped them up, humming in satisfaction.

Kagome blinked at Inuyasha and at Miroku, turned to look at the boy on the table, turned around, and after a moment picked up her fork and scooped up some of the rice. This was going to take time to get used to…

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	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note' before chapter 1. Thanks

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"Flying a Dragonship's dangerous business," croaked the old Toutousai, hobbling down a hallway with Kagome trailing behind. "The fuel they run off of is explosive enough that four Dragonships flown into the school will level it, and I know you haven't been outside yet, but it's a two hundred story building. They're stocked with weapons, and there's a prototype here that's even more deadly. Even the wings are sharpened by a laser to cut an atom. They're the only thing that can really fight Naraku's youkai, so they've got to be strong." Kagome nodded sagely, following him past doorways and windows. "Flying them is one of the most difficult things to master. It takes fast reflexes, the ability to multitask, and knowing what the hell you're actually doing, among other things." He turned to her, aged eyes narrow. "Needless to say, it'll be a long time before you're actually setting foot in one of them. We'll run you on the simulation until you can do decent, then take you out with an experienced co-pilot and get the basics down. If you're any good at it, maybe in a year you'll start the battle simulation, and if you manage that, you'll probably be allowed in a battle two or three years from now." Kagome nodded again, hiding her disappointment as best she could, but Toutousai could tell. "You know, most boys come here at age eight or so, but they aren't allowed to begin training until they're eleven," he said kindly. "They aren't allowed to even enter the hangar until they're twelve, and they are only allowed in battles after fifteen. It takes most of them four years to go through what you'll be covering in two or three."

"I know." She smiled a little. "It's just…really…"

"You're handling yourself pretty well," he said gruffly. "Heard about the lunch thing. That was smart." He pushed a door open. "We're here."

They were in a huge room, lined from wall to wall with helmets, all identical. "Everyone has an assigned helmet," he said, moving down the room. "And they know which one is theirs. We'll have to fit you for one." Pausing at a cabinet under a shelf, he yanked the door open and seized a helmet from inside. "Kaede was a little older than you when she got caught in that battle—she had to put her hair up so it wouldn't get in the way. You're going to want to do that too."

"Alright." She pulled a hair tie that had been included in the clothes she'd been given and pulled her hair into a bun at the back of her head.

"Now put this on and see if it fits. Shouldn't be too loose, but shouldn't pinch your head either." He thrust the helmet at her. She took it and settled it on her head, the visor sliding down automatically over her eyes.

"It fits," she said finally.

"We'll start out with the simulation." He had just turned towards a door when a siren began wailing.

The old man straightened, eyes widening, and swore vividly and turned back to Kagome. "Stay here until I get back, girl!" Moving faster than she'd thought he could, he tottered out of the room, and seconds later, another set of doors burst open and boys began flooding in.

"Naraku?!"

"He hasn't attacked for—"

"The dirty bastard! Right after lunch, too!"

Someone seized her wrist, someone she recognized vaguely as one of the teachers. "What are you waiting for, boy? Get in a ship!"

He thinks I'm a boy, that I've done this before—Oh, CRAP!

She was shoved along with the rest of the crowd, eventually coming to an enormous hangar as a metal door at one end rattled up, boys scrambling into the parked aircraft. Once someone was inside, the windshield flipped down over them, and one by one every shield slammed shut until only one was left in the back and to her right.

"Get in!" Someone roughly pushed her towards the empty one and she took off at a run, hastily climbing in. The hatch shut over her as she thudded onto the seat and righted herself, and straps flew over her, crossing in an X over her chest.

Near paralyzed, she stared at the panels with wide eyes. Think, Kagome, think—this is just like the diagrams in the manual! They told you everything you'd need to know! Find the fuel switch, gotta hit that first.

She did a quick mental check of the ship and found a few differences than what had been described in the manual, but they made it more maneuverable and with better ammo. Instead of a single steering stick, there were two rods. The thrusters were mobile, too… Strange, but easy enough to psionically manipulate.

Looking up, she realized most pilots had already taken off, and swallowed, pushing the fuel switch and counting to ten like the book had said. With another flip of a switch, the side thrusters roared to life, the Dragonship slowly rolling forward. Her hands settled on the two steering rods that protruded from either side of the seat, guiding it straight towards the open deck, and she slowly brought up the speed by using her mind to push up the lever that controlled the power level of the main thruster.

Just before the opening hit and the ground dropped away, she hit full speed and shot out. The sensation of flying was strange, very strange, but somehow…familiar…

Focus on the fight, Kagome! The goal here is not to get killed!

Most of the Dragonships ahead were in a wall-like formation, heading for the huge cloud of approaching youkai, but she could see that they wouldn't last if they hit it head-on. The youkai would ram into them and it would just be like banging two same-sized rocks together—no result.

Then she discovered the boosters that lowered from the underside of the wings. Setting the laser whiskers—two beams of light on either side of the cockpit that could be adjusted to any length and that could cut through anything—to a thirty-feet radius, she kicked on the extra thrusters and soared beneath her fellow students' formation, then yanked back on the steering rods until she was almost flying vertical, and righted. Plunging into the mass of youkai, she jerked the steering handles and the craft spun into a corkscrew, boring through the demons and creating a huge tunnel in the solid block they had once been. No longer safe in numbers, the youkai scattered, and she hared after the nearest ones, slicing through them. Adrenalin ran through her veins, and her heart pounded, wondering if she was going to get killed at any second, but though several demons were trying, they weren't having any luck.

This is too easy…If this Naraku guy's all he's cracked up to be, there's more to this than the obvious. She dropped clear of the flock of youkai and navigated past the individual battles to get a clearer view.

The aerial battle was vicious and it involved an overwhelming number of youkai, but her senses were picking up something on the other side of the school, as well as something on the horizon. "Activate grid," she instructed. Thin white lines appeared over the hatch and she added, "Magnify sector 35-24 to ten times." The black dot she'd been watching swelled into another hoard of youkai approaching from behind. Fire demons flew alongside ogres burdened with explosives, and they were headed for the school.

"Not if I can help it," she growled. A flick of her power sent the extra thrusters roaring to life once more and she hurtled towards them. The Lumanex Cannons lowered from either wing between the regular thrusters and the extra boosters, and she started locking on the targets.

"Switch on your damn communication link," crackled a voice in the cockpit.

Eyes widening, she realized it'd been off and flipped the switch. "Got it." The transmission would distort her voice past recognition for the moment.

"I'm on your left. I don't know what the hell you were thinking breaking formation and what the hell you think you're doing now, but last time it worked."

"There's another patch of youkai headed for the school from the rear," she said shortly. "And your 'formation' would have gotten you all killed. I'm taking on that mess over there since no one else seems to have figured out it's there. Feel free to join me if you want." Shutting off the link, she opened fire, then powered up the whiskers again. Pieces of demon rained down, and she glanced over to see her companion up and to the left. Whoever it was, he was about as good as she was at flying. At least one person was going to help her out.

A huge maggot writhed, appearing out of nowhere, and she automatically twisted the steering cranks so the craft flew on its side. The razor sharp edge of the wing sliced it in half; gunfire from behind her shredded it beyond damaging capabilities.

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Inuyasha leaned into a barrel roll himself—the pilot ahead of him was the only other person he knew that could pull it off. Had to be one of the new students; whoever it was, he had to have had one hell of a training course in piloting Dragonships. He didn't care, though; all that mattered was keeping Naraku's demons from getting to the school. Until they found out everything that Kagome girl wasn't telling them, he was going to keep her in one piece, since she didn't seem all too lethal herself. Sure, she'd displayed phenomenal amounts of psionic power and fairly good reflexes, but so far she looked more like the type to watch from the sidelines. Who knew if she even could use her psion powers to fight? She could levitate things fairly well, and the silence thing was infamous now, but he'd never seen her attack anyone directly with them.

Ahead of him, the pilot dropped a few hundred feet, sped up until he was right under a bunch of demons, turned on his whiskers, and shot straight up in the air; moments later they were youkai jerky.

Inuyasha was really going to have to find out where that kid had learned to fly like that.

Kaede's voice rasped over the common transmitter, the one everyone could hear in their cockpits. "Pilots of D-921 and DA-001, state your names. Over."

D-921 was him. "Inuyasha Dairei, ma'am," he drawled. "Over." He heard a mutter of "surprise, surprise," and then there was tense pause as everyone waited for the identity of the other pilot.

"Oh, there's that switch—Kagome. Kagome Higurashi. Um, ma'am….Over."

For a split second there was only dead silence. And then everyone started talking at once, hurting his ears, so he shot off the common transmitter and set the one-to-one communicator to her frequency. "KAGOME?!"

"Yes, Inuyasha?" She sounded as calm as if she was in class, despite the bloody scraps of youkai flying up around her ship. She stuffed explosives down the throats of twenty of the demon and shot a fire youkai, which burst into a huge fireball, setting off a chain of explosions, which then caught most of the explosives headed for the school. "Can I help you?" she inquired politely after a beat.

"What the hell are you doing up here?" he demanded.

"I've been asking myself that, actually." She wheeled around and started picking off youkai locked in battle with other pilots. "From all appearances, flying a Dragonship around and shooting things. How am I doing, by the way?"

This was not happening to him. In a moment, he'd wake up and take comfort in the knowledge that this was all a crazy dream.

What appeared to be a demon liver landed on his windshield with a bloody splat. He winced and hit the incinerator switch, burning it off. It was all real.

And Kagome was a freakishly skilled pilot.

Inuyasha began swearing a blue streak just as Miroku's voice came over the transmitter. "Inuyasha, tell me I did not hear that. Please."

"I will if you will," he said blankly. "Because I heard it too."

"What's the matter?" By now he could just barely recognize Kagome's voice on the radio. "Is there something wrong?"

"No," Inuyasha said dryly, "nothing's wrong, Kagome."

"I'm not doing really badly, am I?"

"No, no you're not." He watched, dumbfounded, as she cut in front of an ogre bearing a load of explosives, deftly fired a shot, and pulled free in time to escape the blast, then flew over to where a bat-youkai was chasing a pilot and sliced right through it.

"This should be illegal," Inuyasha said numbly.

"I think it is," Miroku replied. "But if she keeps on flying like that, I'm not telling."

She could fly like nobody's business, she obviously had some relative fighting skills, and then there was the fact that she had psionic ability and power to an unknown degree and had obviously been meticulously trained in it. With the beginnings of irritation, Inuyasha wondered if there was actually anything she couldn't do and gritted his teeth, firing viciously at a pair of youkai flying towards him. Miroku watched from his cockpit and wondered what was eating Inuyasha's nerves.

"The attack's been defeated," scratched Kaede's voice in every Dragonship. "All units land your Dragonship in the airfield in arranged formation, except for D-921 and DA-001—land on the dock at the roof. Over."

Kagome swerved up, glancing around and sending out her senses to find anything, but all of the enemy youkai were gone, either running away or with little left of them other than flecks on her windshield. There was what they had called the dock… She slid to a neat halt, Inuyasha's ship pulling up beside hers a moment later as the hatch lifted and she climbed out, pulling off her helmet.

Commander Kaede marched over, eyes wide but speculatively locked on her. "Old Man Toutousai says you hadn't run the simulation yet," she said briskly. "In fact, Old Man Toutousai here says you were instructed to stay and wait until he returned, instead of finding the prototype for the Dragonship Advances Model, climbing in it, and taking off."

Kagome swallowed, stomach knotting. She had really screwed this one up, hadn't she?

"The DA-001 is the first and only Dragonship with the capabilities, maneuvering, and weaponry it has. It was designed to be flown by a psion already highly trained and experienced in flying a normal Dragonship, one who could manipulate all the controls and draw out its potential, and not to be used in a fight until another was made." She paused significantly. "It was not designed to be flown by a sixteen-year-old girl who had never set foot in a Dragonship before, in her first battle, before anything like it had been built." By now, Kagome was desperately wishing the ground would swallow her whole. "However, nothing changes the fact that it was the sixteen-year-old girl to handle the DA-001 better than the previous test pilots, all of considerable experience and ability."

Startled, Kagome looked up. Kaede wasn't going to chew her out? What was going on?

"To be blunt, Kagome, you opened up a can of whoop-ass," Commander Kaede said frankly. "It was your first battle, and you did more damage than any other pilot out there. You did have the advanced craft, and the added plus of psionic skill, but in raw aptitude, we've never seen anything like it. You don't need the standard training course; what you need is experience and fast, thorough battle training."

"Mind mentioning what this has to do with me?" Inuyasha was leaning against the side of his Dragonship, tone irate.

"Certainly," she replied, unruffled. "Kagome needs hands-on experience. Everyone else has an assigned partner on their level, but you've out-flown all the other students. You need a partner. She needs experience. Put it together, boy."

He blanched, and Kagome looked over at him, trying to hide a grimace. Partners? What exactly did that all entail? Would they be fighting as a team as they had in the battle a few minutes before? Or would it mean more?

Inuyasha, on the other hand, was having substantially different thoughts. Ones that involved quite a few obscenities. He didn't need a partner. He didn't want a partner. He didn't want a girl for a partner. He didn't want Kagome for a partner!

Next time Miroku gets a hunch that there's something to be discovered in some unseen part of the school, I'm knocking him out and dragging him far, far away, he mentally vowed.

Kagome was watching him with those anxious silvery lavender eyes, looking remarkably small and alone for the same person to take out untold numbers of youkai on the battlefield. He'd released her into this world; as much as it hindered him now, he'd have to take the consequences now. "Fine by me," he sighed, closing his eyes before his inner irritation could surface in their hue.

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Whoo hoo finally some fighting action! Kagome kicked demon ass!

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	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note' before chapter 1. Thanks

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Kagome walked down the hall, counting the door numbers until she came to C-682, and pulled her student ID from her pocket again, sliding it into the slot by the door. A line of light slid over her right eye, and a small screen flashed the message, Retinal scan confirmed: Kagome Higurashi. The door's panel whisked to the side, and she took a hesitant step inside.

Lights were automatically turned on in the small flat, throwing back shadows in each of the three rooms. A neat bathroom was on her right, the living room in front of her, and a door on the left wall of the living room that most likely led into the bedroom. The living room itself was small, perhaps fifteen feet by twenty, with a small couch, a table, a chair, a bookshelf, two small tables—one supported a vase of dried flowers and the other a lamp—and a cabinet in the wall that opened to a fold-out screen and that was some sort of audio-visual device.

The bedroom was nice enough. There was a desk in one corner, a machine of some sort perched on its surface; a small, low table with a clock on top squatted beside a twin bed with a dark blue comforter and white sheets. There was a door for the closet, and a mirror, as well as a chest of drawers. On the bed was laid out a canvas satchel, several pens, paper, and notebooks, as well as other supplies for classes. There was a short letter as well that briefly explained the purpose of the desk's machine and how to use it.

She walked out, slowly pacing over to the sliding door in the living room and pushing the curtains outside. The glassic panel slid aside with a slight hiss, letting in a cool, fresh breeze, and she took a step outside, feeling the air curl around her face. The balcony was one of many that dotted the side of the building, but nearer the top—in fact, only five stories from the roof.

Beyond the balcony, millions of lights stretched on and on, a vast infinity of skyscrapers and buildings dotted in light, the night making them stand out brilliantly. She rested her weight on the railing, staring out at her first night here.

Two visions came back to her, two fragments of memories. One was looking down at an earth thousands of feet below, the same flying sensation coursing through her veins, something carrying her. How could she have been flying? It didn't make sense…

The other vision was of the same view, over three thousand years before then, from a time and age she had once known. Night in some great building, gazing out from another balcony at another city that had once stood where this one stood now, so like another sea of stars, forever out of reach.

Someone else was looking out at Neo Tokyo from their balcony, wondering how much more his life was going to change from awaking the young woman from beneath his school. She'd already challenged most of the traditions that had been indefinitely in place; how much more was she going to overturn?

She was just a girl—a strange one with unknown powers, true—but a girl all the same. And everyone knew girls couldn't fight. She was only creating more problems.

His life had had a nice, sensible routine before now: take his advanced classes; spend free time either practicing, studying, training, or with Miroku; eat; sleep; occasionally get in a battle; wake up and repeat, with the occasional joke about girls added as needed. Kagome was changing all that, making it abundantly clear that she didn't fit into their 'girl' category, and he didn't like it. And then there was the fact that she was now his partner and would be going to his classes, following him around like a pup. Who knew what was going to happen now? All the important military leaders were men, and they weren't going to enlist a soldier whose partner had been a female, no matter how skilled either were and how unfair it was. There went his plans for a military career, like his father; it was unlikely he'd follow in the footsteps of his grandmother, the Psionic Hime, either.

I want my memories, Kagome thought wistfully. I want to remember how to fly…I want to know who I am…

I want to be as great as my father, Inuyasha reflected, staring at the city. I want to live up to his reputation…prove to everyone that I didn't kill anyone…

I want wings. Kagome closed her eyes, leaning heavily on the rail. But I'll never have them.

I want respect. Inuyasha's fists clenched. But I'll never get it.

Unbeknownst to each other, both Kagome and Inuyasha let out a long sigh, only three balconies apart, both feeling defeated for different reasons.

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MONDAY, APRIL 18, 6118 A.D. V.E.O ACADEMY, NEO TOKYO, JAPAN

"I'm telling you, you do this and you sign the death warrant for every person in this school!" Kaede insisted angrily. "If Naraku finds out about Kagome, nothing will keep him from unleashing every force he has on this school to destroy her!"

"He will have heard about it by now, Commander," Principal Ginme said wearily. "Many of the boys have already told their parents, and the rumors spread."

"The people have a right to know," a small, thin man added self-righteously, scowling as he tugged on the edges of his sparse mustache. "You have no say in this matter, particularly not as a female. The people will be informed."

"The people aren't the ones who are going to hear about the revival of someone who could be the key to winning this war and try to kill her and the rest of the school!" Kaede shouted, getting nearer to losing her temper by the second. "Already we've gone through almost three millennia of war with Naraku! She could end that, and the people will know, but for the time being Naraku can't, and if that means hiding her existence from anyone who doesn't need to know, so be it!"

"Our readers depend on the Neo Tokyo Times to deliver news as soon as possible after we hear it," he returned, sniffing. "And we will publish stories as we see fit."

"Not this one, you won't!" growled Kaede.

"Commander Kaede and Mr. Suzuki, you will cease this nonsense at once." The Psionic Hime gazed imperiously down on them from the VidScreen, eyes narrowed. "There is one obvious solution, and that is to notify the Emperor, the Psion King, and the Representatives of each planet. The gravity of this situation is beyond dinner table talk, Mr. Suzuki, and so I am sure you will understand if I forbid you and your newspaper from printing and publishing any stories concerning young Kagome. If the Grand Council gathers here, you may cover that, but with no mention of why, where, and when. Kaede is right in that this situation is a serious matter and must remain in absolute secrecy. Kagome's secrecy may be a matter of life or death for everyone in this school, and it is our duty to not allow the students to be put into harm or a potentially deadly situation."

There was a loud boom behind them, and everyone looked to the glass wall in time to see black smoke billow up. A second later, several students tottered past, thoroughly charred.

"That was awesome!"

"I told you not to set off that one!"

"Good going, dumbass, couldn't even wait until we were out of the room!"

Far down the hall, Toutousai's creaking bellow echoed menacingly, and they all swore and bolted away. Boys crowded closer, trying to look through the smoke.

"What'd they set off?"

"I dunno!"

"Wish I'd thought of that!"

"We can light something else, you guys!"

"Yeah! Something bigger!"

"What if it, like, knocked down a wall?"

"That would be so cool!"

"That is," Hime Gohoshi added dryly in the silence afterward, "assuming they don't kill themselves first."

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	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer:I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note' before chapter 1. Thanks.

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9:11 AM, MONDAY, APRIL 18

Kagome stepped out of the Nutrition Scanner, tray fully laden in what she assumed were breakfast foods, feeling rather odd in her new clothes. Then again, she wasn't about to refuse them—she had no money and no way to make any, so until she did she would live with what the school gave her. The sleeveless royal blue shirt came down to her knees, cinched by a light blue sash, hanging loose over her chest. She'd put on the long-sleeved white shirt underneath is, along with the fingerless light blue gloves, sky-blue loose pants, and boots made from some tough but flexible material. The four long strips of ice-blue cloth she'd wound around her elbows and knees; she'd also pulled her waist-long hair into a braid to keep it out of her face. It wasn't a bad look, just one that she'd have to get used to.

The boys either silently stared at her or kept their eyes on their food until she had passed, an uneasy quiet dulling some of the sound in the cafeteria. She ignored them and sat down at the same table from before, noticing with a twinge that is was empty. Well, Miroku had his own friends, and same with Inuyasha; she couldn't expect them to keep her company every day.

"Hey, Kagome!" She looked up to see Miroku waving from another table. "Come eat with us!"

She hesitated, opening her mouth to respond, when she saw Inuyasha elbow Miroku in the ribs, muttering something. A shadow crossed Miroku's face and he said something back, then shouted, "Come on in, the water's fine!"

This time Inuyasha turned to face him and hissed, "Shut up, Miroku! I'm not eating with her!"

Kagome heard and stared down at her breakfast until she could trust herself to speak. "It's okay, I'd rather eat over here."

"You sure?"

She nodded, a lump in her throat. "I'm fine." Before he could say anything, she shoveled a bite into her mouth, eyes cast down.

"Her eyes change color, right?" Miroku asked.

"Yeah," Inuyasha said gruffly around a mouthful of banana, "they do."

"You ever seen 'em that color?"

Inuyasha quickly looked over to where she sat alone, picking at her food, now-silver eyes expressionless. The only other time he'd seen them that shade was when she'd first found out how long she'd been asleep. No, not then—what had she said? "I have nothing! I should be dead right now with the rest of my family! I remember nothing except my name and little pieces that mean nothing to me!"

Her eyes had been dark violet, silver, pale purple, and silver-purple then. The silver-purple was confusion, he'd figured that out before; dark purple was anger, pale purple fear.

So silver was sorrow. Emotional pain.

"No," he lied. "Never."

9:31 AM, MONDAY, APRIL 18

Kagome nervously approached Inuyasha's table after clearing away her tray, her food barely touched. Miroku noticed her standing there right away, but either Inuyasha didn't or he was ignoring her. "What's up, Kaggy?"

"Well, um…" She shifted uncomfortably, wishing Inuyasha would look up at her. "They haven't told me which classes I'll be going to, and I don't know where to find out…"

"Inuyasha's your partner," Miroku said, sounding as if that should explain everything.

"What does that mean?" If Inuyasha wouldn't keep ignoring her like this, it wouldn't make her feel nearly so much like she was on trial.

Inuyasha stood up abruptly, his expression dark. "It means you're going to be following me," he snapped, walking away and leaving his tray on the table. "Everywhere."

"Same classes," Miroku elaborated, sending a fed-up look at Inuyasha's retreating back. "He did fail to mention that class is in half an hour and your first one's Advanced Mechanics with none other than Sasaki the Merry Little Sunshine, which meets in the Mech Shop." She blinked, trying to remember where that was. "Rear wall of the hangar," he informed her, reading her look correctly. "Take your book bag, three notebooks, and at least five pens any pencils—not to mention the Dragonship Manual. You'll be assigned a set of tools, and heaven help you if you damage or lose any of them. Depending on his mood, he'll either let you work on a damaged Dragonship or make you take notes and read. His homework generally leans towards assigned readings and study questions, with the occasional essay. Stuff he knows is boring and makes you do anyway. It's my first class too—in fact, I'm in every class of yours, now that I think of it. Of course." He frowned, rubbing his chin absentmindedly. "'Course, you'll be doing different stuff in our AFT class—Advanced Flight Training. I think both the Head Commander and the Head Psion work with you then."

Kagome's mouth pulled into a half-frown. "How many people do they do that with?"

"Before now, it was just Inuyasha." Miroku stood, picking up both his tray and Inuyasha's and depositing them in a bin nearby. "Now I assume it's both you and Inuyasha." They left the cafeteria together, pushing through the masses, and Miroku yelled over the chatter, "Don't be late! Try to get to the hangar ten minutes before class if you can!"

He vanished into the masses and she looked around, then shoved out into some free space and ducked down a hall, trying to remember where she needed to go. Her room was only five stories from the roof…the C level of the rooms…she'd need to use one of those tube-things to get up there. The ones outside the cafeteria would be crowded, and she was near the library, so she'd take the ones there. She set off at a jog, hoping she'd be able to make it to class on time.

10:04 AM, MONDAY, APRIL 18

"Thank you for joining us, Miss Higurashi," Professor Sasaki said, tone biting. "Fashionably late, I presume? You are aware that you are four minutes tardy."

"I got lost," she mumbled, turning beet red and staring at the ground. "I—"

"Exceptions are not made for anyone, Higurashi," he snapped. "Not new students, not old ones, not ones that conveniently get lost, and not ones that really don't belong here. You have detention tonight."

Kagome was going to die of shame, right then and there. It was bad enough that no one was saying anything, just looking at her. What was worse was that Inuyasha wasn't even looking at her, just making a pencil levitate absentmindedly above his open palm, his back to her. "I'm sorry," she whispered, eyes locked on the now fascinating ground.

"I'm sorry, sir," he corrected tightly.

Miroku stared at Sasaki, completely blown away. Not only did he never antagonize anyone like this, but he'd never made any of them call him 'sir.'

Kagome struggled to keep her face blank as she shuffled to an empty seat in the back of the room. She hadn't missed his comment on students that 'really didn't belong there' and knew exactly what he was saying: just because he allowed her in his classroom didn't mean he had even come close to accepting her yet.

"Now if we may continue?" He pulled a battered copy of what she'd dubbed The Manual out and dropped it on the desk. "The plan for today was to get to work on repairing some of the Dragonships—" At this everyone sat up a little straighter, looking interested. "—but since not everyone now is as… experienced, it's time for a little pop quiz. And then we'll be reviewing the past few lessons to make sure everybody understands."

She wanted the ground to swallow her up as the boys turned and glowered at her. Her face was rapidly turning brilliant red now, and she shrank in her seat, head dropping a few inches. In the back of her mind, a nasty little voice was pointing out that even though Sasaki was making no attempts to disguise his…well, disgust, with her, he didn't have to flaunt it in class. She wasn't the one making the decisions right now; if she had her way, she'd be back with her family, three thousand years before then, with all of her memories.

"I doubt you will ever be on the other students' level, Higurashi, but you may as well try." Sasaki's harsh voice cut through her dark thoughts. "Unless you are somehow able to absorb information without taking the time to study it like these boys have. If that is not the case, I suggest you take notes."

Someone raised his hand: Miroku. "Professor Sasaki, if I help Kagome study—"

"No." He crossed his arms, the look in his eyes as he glanced at her saying loud and clear: If you're going to pretend you're as good as us men, you're going to have to prove it, and you're going to have to do it the hard way. "All my former students have passed this class with no need of assistance or special favors. I'm sure Miss Higurashi will do just fine."

Kagome closed her eyes, trying to remember everything she'd pulled from The Manual, and feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. It was going to be a long, long time before she'd won his acceptance; who knew if she'd ever win his respect.

12:37 PM, MONDAY, APRIL 18

She had gotten about half of the answers on the quiz right, but the others had been miserable failures and had been pointed out to the entire class by her new favorite teacher. The history teacher, Professor Tenaka, had presented her with an enormous textlog—a book that had been transferred to a computer file; the more pages, the bigger the box that held the reading screen and the actual textlog itself—and informed her they were about halfway through already, so she'd have to catch up somehow. She'd spent the class taking notes on a time period thick with people she'd never heard of, events she'd never heard of, and devices she'd never heard of. Apparently these were the events that started to lead up to the Hundred-Year War.

Miroku had told her she had five more classes to go.

She was doomed.

The sandwich on her plate had too few bites taken from it to warrant an early sendoff to the garbage bin, but it was callously deposited there anyway. Kagome wasn't hungry and wasn't going to force herself to eat. Maybe it would be better to starve herself, rather than put herself through this. She had no friends, nobody on her side, no memories, no family, nothing but pointless ability.

An ache began to gnaw at her heart, a lump rising in her throat. Who was she kidding? She could never belong here. Everywhere she went, eyes followed her, and she could almost hear the thoughts behind every pair: Slut. Tramp. What does she think she's doing in a boy's school? Next thing we know, they'll be making us play dollies and have tea parties.

She walked out of the cafeteria, dragging her feet, head down. She had another thirty minutes until she had to get to Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry; she might as well go to her room and pick up her practice clothes for Hand-to-Hand Combat Training after that.

"Hold up a sec, youngster."

She turned around to discover Commander Kaede lounging against the wall outside the cafeteria, stormy gray eyes on her. "Me?"

"You," she confirmed. "Saw your first period class. Are you planning on letting Sasaki humiliate you every day of class for the next four years until you graduate, or was today just special?"

Kagome closed her eyes, opened her mouth to mumble a diplomatic reply, and found herself speaking her opinion instead. "I can't help it if he's got something rammed up his rear when it comes to girls, but I'm not really in the position to verbally bitch-slap him right now. If I even could."

Kaede nodded slowly, lips tight. "He was not happy when I was put in command, among other things." Her voice was somewhat distant. "I'd give him a reprimand, but he'd blow it off and come down on you harder."

Kagome didn't know what to say, so she stuck her hands in her pockets, waiting for Kaede to continue.

"Try to stay out of his way, if you can help it," she finally advised. "Everyone here has been raised with the notion that girls are weaker than boys instead of us being equals, and not very many of them are going to be easy to win over. Sasaki's no peach, that's for sure, and he's going to discourage you any way he can. Not that I'm saying you should just roll over and let him pick at you, but he sees you as having an advantage with your psion powers and he's the type who instinctively resents women in power. I've put up with a lot of crap from him, I know. He'll accuse you of using your powers to cheat, he'll make sure everything you do is flawless, and if you mess up he's going to make sure everyone knows. All you can do is try your hardest and don't let him get to you. I can bail you out on a bad day, but only every once in a while."

"Why are you telling me this?" Kagome asked tiredly, knowing she sounded rude and not caring.

"Let's just say that I can relate." She pushed away from the wall and ambled down the wide hallway, and Kagome was left standing there, watching her and wondering what exactly she meant. All she knew about Kaede was that she was the only other woman to fly a Dragonship and that she was related somehow to whoever Kikyô was. What did she mean, she could relate?

Shaking her head, Kagome irately left for her room.

2:29 PM, MONDAY, APRIL 18

Narrowed brown eyes studied her, measuring her up. She met that gaze with neutral blue-gray eyes, stance neither challenging nor defensive.

"How much do you know, girl?" Professor Arakawa asked, tone guarded.

"I…don't know," she confessed. "I studied for a while, but I don't know what and I don't know how long."

He saw her shifting uncomfortably, and remembered Kaede had told him she'd had Sasaki first period. If she was still in one piece, she had to be a tough little thing, though at the moment she didn't look like the person he'd pictured. After all, this was the girl who, according to multiple people, took out more than thirty demons on instinct and nearly destroyed a hospital room, and he'd been presented with a girl a bit shorter than normal, with wide blue eyes and long black hair, one who was knotting her hands behind her back, one who looked as if she'd rather be anywhere else. She seemed about as lethal as a dust bunny.

Oddly enough, she also reminded him of Kaede when he'd first met her—they'd both been around twenty and she'd just been taken in by the Tsuya family. No memories, very lonely, no one to watch out for her but her new family, who she hardly knew. This Kagome didn't even have that.

"Give me a high kick," he suggested, moving into a fighting stance. She glanced up, and obeyed, but the blow didn't carry much force and wasn't very fast. What he could see as he blocked it was that it was a half-hearted attempt.

He sighed, standing straight again and meeting her eyes squarely. "I want you to fight against… Hachiro, over there." He pointed to a boy of about fifteen and of moderate skill, and gestured for him to come over. If she was any good, she'd beat him. If she wasn't, Hachiro would defeat her fast enough without embarrassing her. "Just do whatever you want."

She nodded hesitantly as the boy came over and nodded to Professor Arakawa, who explained quickly to him. He agreed.

Kagome stared at the boy a few feet away from her, trying to remember if she knew anything about martial arts and not noticing that she'd shifted into a fighting stance when he did.

Professor Arakawa stepped back, ordering, "Begin."

She waited for Hachiro to make the first move, her mind calming her emotions so they wouldn't be betrayed in her eyes and face. He paused, then swiftly kicked at her knees. She jumped clear, one of her legs shooting out at his chest. He leapt back, eyes widening, and she landed, wondering where on earth this was coming from.

This time he had no qualms about charging her, and he was faster than before. Caught off guard, she was knocked to the ground, but instead of lying there, she let her ears tell her where Hachiro had gone—he was on her right—and twisted, scissoring her legs to catch his behind the knees and sending him to the ground himself. Her feet moved back into a defensive stance as she shot to her feet once more, a slight sweat on her face.

Arakawa studied her moves, somehow unsurprised. She was better than Hachiro, or she had been—from masked bewilderment on her face he knew she was acting solely on reflex. If it came down to her and a youkai, without her infamous psionic powers she'd hold her own until help came. With her powers… He didn't even want to think about it. She had to have amazing reaction times if she'd flown the DA-001 and not killed herself in the process.

She was deliberately holding back, and he could tell. Maybe she didn't even notice, but she wasn't attacking, only defending, and not actually going after Hachiro. She was probably about a year or two beyond the standard for her age, but a few of his students were. If he wanted a real estimate, though, he'd have to find a way to witness her giving her all, and that wasn't going to be easy.

"Stop," he finally called. "Good job, both of you. Hachiro, go back to your exercises. Kagome, come here." She came. He pointed to another boy, a youkai of considerable ability, and silently apologized to him. "That's Nichiren. I'm going to have you fight against him, because he seems more to your level—but Kagome?" She nodded. "He's …well, not exactly a feminist. You're going to want to beat him, and fast, or you may get hurt."

"Doesn't he answer to the Commander?" she asked, confused.

"Oh, sure he does, and he hates every minute of it." That set her off, and he knew it—her brow lowered, eyes shifting, a barely-concealed scowl on her face. "Nichiren, would you mind coming over here?"

Nichiren nodded, and Arakawa pulled him aside, telling him in a low voice exactly what he needed. It took the offer of twenty points extra credit to get the poor boy to agree, but once he did, he settled into the role quite perfectly.

This time, Kagome's opponent had a cocky, snide grin on his face. "You want me to fight her?" he asked, yawning. "You've got to be kidding."

"No joke, Nichiren," he said sternly. "Get to work."

They both shifted, his feet planted firmly on the ground. He was going to be tougher than Hachiro, that was for sure.

"Begin."

He came at her, and she blocked his strike at her face and drove her fist towards his diaphragm. Nichiren knocked it away, dropping and trying to sweep her legs out from underneath her, much as Hachiro had. She jumped back to give herself space, watching him warily. He came at her, swinging, and she ducked under his punch, shoving her shoulder at the center of his chest and putting all of her weight into it. He was forced back.

They watched each other, guarded, and then he sneered, "Why are you even trying? You don't belong here, girl."

That was a high kick, Professor Arakawa reflected with a cringe on Nichiren's behalf. At least the boy was youkai, so it wouldn't hurt him so much. The knee to the stomach—that had to be painful… So did that upper cut… That punch was going to leave a bruise…

"Stop," he ordered, taking a mental note that he owed Nichiren more than twenty points extra credit.

Kagome had just landed a kick in his stomach that sent him flying into the wall five feet behind the boy. Straightening, she glowered balefully at him as he in turn glowered balefully at Professor Arakawa, nursing a bruised jaw and cheekbone and other bruises in places he couldn't see.

Fifty points, he decided with a mental sigh. "Very good, both of you… Nichiren, you can take a trip to the nurse's office if you want… Kagome, I'd like you to follow me…" He ran a hand through his hair, wondering what they were going to do with this girl. She was practically a fighting machine—who only fought when she was provoked. If she didn't want to be verbally kicked around like a sack of flour at this school, she'd have to learn to stand up for herself, which was seeming fairly doubtful. But by the Emperor, could she fight! Obviously, with practice and more training, she'd be almost as good as Kaede herself!

Here they were, in the middle of a multi-millennia war with Naraku, and then the human equivalent of an atomic bomb, or so it seemed, had just been dropped into their laps. It didn't get much better than that.

He turned, only to find his human atomic bomb staring at the ground, silver eyes lost.

Across the room, resentful orange-red eyes were locked on her as well.

3:41 PM, MONDAY, APRIL 13

The hangar echoed with the footsteps of not just the Head Commander but the AFT class as they followed her inside. "Everyone get into a battle simulator," she barked, crossing her arms and adding in lower voice, "Over there, Kagome."

She nodded quickly and trailed after the boys. Kaede had to hold back a sigh of exasperation when she noticed that most of them, with the exception of Miroku, were doing a remarkable job of giving her the cold shoulder. Including her partner.

Kagome slid into the last booth, the metal sides coming down around her, and picked up the helmet on the dashboard in front of her. The controls were different than the ones she'd used but identical to the many illustrations in The Manual. She swallowed, sliding the helmet over her head and wrapping her hands around the single steering lever. There was no way for her to do a psionic analysis on a simulation, and the advantages the DA-001 had had were more than obvious, and just in the cockpit.

"Five seconds," Kaede said crisply.

Kagome took a deep breath, reminding herself that she'd flown a decidedly more complex machine and not gotten herself killed. This couldn't be too hard.

The visor on the helmet flickered to life, showing her position in the hangar. The other pilots began to take off, and she hit the fuel switch. Or it had been the fuel switch in the DA-001. This was the missile launcher, which she recalled an instant after she'd flicked it. Red lights began flashing and she hurriedly shut it off again, trying to remember where the real fuel switch was. No, it was a button—she found it and gave it a jab, the Dragonship roaring to life underneath her. Her free hand seized the steering lever and frantically pushed it forward, only to hear gears squall all around her, the craft lurching forward and nearly colliding with the one in front of it. Yanking back made it nearly stop in its place.

Now flustered, she brought up the speed again, but it wasn't going very fast. She mentally reached for the boosters under the wings—

But they weren't there. This was a simulation, and a simulation of a normal Dragonship at that. There weren't any boosters and they wouldn't be there on any ship other than the one she'd flown.

She was going too slow—if she continued, she'd plummet when she came to the opening. Swallowing, she pushed forward, ignoring the fact that most of the boys had long since gotten their aircrafts out. Her hands shook a bit, and in response the ship swerved slightly, throwing her off balance.

She knew she didn't have the same advantages she'd had, where she'd been able to see where everything was on the ship and knowing how it would work, but this was humiliating. Gritting her teeth, she pushed forward on the throttle.

The engine grated in response, and a bitter blaze spewed from the main thruster. She rocketed forward, shooting into open air, and dropped for a moment, then rose unsteadily.

A youkai jumped on her tail. Her arms ached to use both steering handles on the DA-001, instead of the one handle here—she could use those, and twice as well as this! Nevertheless, she tried to whirl around.

Instead of an abrupt turn, she ended up going in a broad arc, which accomplished nothing other than leading the youkai in a circle. An idea came to mind, and she drove the Dragonship into a dive, slowing a bit, and then pointed the nose up again as the youkai passed overhead. Where was the laser gun on this thing? The firing latch wasn't where it had been…

By the time she located it, the youkai was out of range, so she sped up and opened fire.

Something hit her right wing, making her spin crazily, and only when she righted and regained control did she realize that she not only had not turned off the guns but had put quite a few holes in the other boys' ships.

She was flying up to get clear of the current battles and try to get a hold of herself when another youkai charged towards her. She dodged left—

And flew straight into someone else. There was an explosion, and everything shook, and then it all came to a halt.

She was very grateful this was just a simulation, but that didn't change the fact that she had just gotten herself 'killed', along with someone else, just as Sasaki had predicted. Pulling her helmet off, she set it wearily on the seat and slid out, standing up.

To her mortification, not only were the simulations being shown on a screen above each of the fake cockpits, but Sasaki had come out to watch, bringing his current engineering class with him. Only one other person was 'dead', and that had to be the person she'd flown into. She looked over to find none other than Inuyasha giving her a look that could have shredded sheet metal, leaning on the simulation cockpit with his arms crossed.

Sasaki smirked, saying cuttingly, "And this is how you normally fly, Higurashi? Because I'm just curious." The boys hid snickers.

"You've got a class, Sasaki," Kaede snapped. "Teach it."

Kagome stared at her feet, beginning to wish she'd died along with the rest of her family.

6:17 PM, MONDAY, APRIL 18

Dinner started out as a quiet affair for Kagome. It didn't last long, thanks to Miroku plunking his tray down across from hers and settling in with a big, bright, cheerful grin on his face. "Nothing preps you for dinner like dissecting some alien spawn, eh?"

She automatically made a face, recalling their class after AFT but right before dinner, Paraterrestrial Biology, a.k.a. PT Bio. Then she remembered the breakfast scene. "Why aren't you eating with Inuyasha?"

"Well, for one thing, he's a big boy and I can stop spoon-feeding him now," Miroku replied thoughtfully. "Aside from that, he's being a cranky ass, and if my two options for dinner partners are both equally able to bash my brains out, frankly, I'll eat with the one who's less likely to do it."

"Don't be so sure," she muttered, stabbing at a lukewarm asparagus spear. "I seem to be particularly skilled at bashing up things, intentionally or not."

"So your first classes were pretty rough, not to mention Sasaki having a wrench or two up his ass. Arakawa likes you, and so does Kaede." He shrugged. "You've always got to keep in mind that until they've seen what you can do, a lot of these kiddies are just going to see you as a girl coming into their all-boys-club. They're not half bad; they just need to see reality." A scowl crossed his face as he took a generous bite of a roll, and he didn't bother swallowing as he added, "And Inuyasha's just jealous of you. He'll get over it eventually."

"Jealous?" Kagome nearly choked on her food. "I'm in a place I know nothing about, with no memories of what my life was like before this, stuck in a school where a grand total of three people out of ten thousand don't see me as a sex toy or the equivalent of something on the bottom of their boot! If he wants to trade places, I'm more than willing!" Why was it that she could stand up for herself now with no hesitation, but at other times she'd hide behind whatever was nearest?

Miroku shook his head. "He isn't thinking of that. He's thinking of the fact that you have powers as strong, if not stronger, than his. He's thinking of how you climbed into something you'd never seen before and used it right. He's thinking of your combat skills when you get pissed. He was the best at everything, including being the one to stand out. Now you're the—the—the Big Bad, as it were." He took another bite of the roll and swallowed after a moment. "He thinks that if he isn't the best at everything he's not going to be as good as his father, and after losing his parents and—" He cut off abruptly, then closed his eyes. "Sorry, not my place to say. He's just… had a lot of trouble in his life, among other things, and he's…. not handling this like I'd hoped. After all, his own grandmother's the Psionic Hime."

Kagome blinked. "I didn't know that."

"Now you do." Spearing a foreign vegetable on his fork, he wagged it at her. "Now, when it comes to food, for the most part we eat what's been seeded, grown, and harvested here on Earth or at least in our solar system. This, though, this's from a planet in a little solar system a couple hundred light years from ours. Nice little place called Evabelan. The people there're all kinda short."

"Really." She searched for one on her plate, found it, and popped it into her mouth. The taste was strange, similar to a tomato but not as sweet.

"Fortunately, they aren't like their cousins on Okarel, who mainly survive off of a liquid so acidic that they're the only race that can ingest it." He grinned. "They say it's got a good flavor, but a so-so aftertaste."

She shuddered. "I'll bet."

"Eat up, though. We've got Psionics after this and even if you've got enough power to level the school, old woman Hanesuzu's gonna work you about as hard as she can."

She blinked. Another female teacher, apparently. So women weren't allowed to fight, but they could teach. Given that, as far as her experiences with other people her age, the mortality rate for combat flying and teaching were most likely about the same, it didn't make much sense.

7:25 PM, MONDAY, APRIL 18

Psionics was fine. Professor Hanesuzu was fairly impressed by the extent of her training, but apparently she was lacking in some areas, which Kagome actually relished. Now that she knew why Inuyasha had a problem with her—other than that thing where she'd killed him in the simulation—she knew that excelling at anything else was going to piss him off even more, even if she couldn't help it. He'd been decent enough to her until she'd started…well, doing well. And shame on her for that, of course.

Psionics was her last class, and she left it with a heavy heart. If it hadn't been abundant enough, Inuyasha's newborn dislike for her had been fairly well-conveyed in every little thing he did, such as glaring at her until she actually looked at him, cutting in front of her on his way out, and so on. She didn't bring it up, though part of her was loudly protesting that if he ever wanted to get married, he'd have to pull his head out of his ass first. But things were different here, and she'd have to get used to it.

When she got to her room, she collected the three textlogs she needed and some pencils and a notebook, then headed to the Mech Shop. A few other boys were there, also apparently Sasaki's detention victims. He glanced up, frowned, and barked, "What do you want, Higurashi?"

"I was late, sir," she answered, trying to keep her voice steady. "I have detention."

Sasaki blinked, narrowed his eyes as if he was trying to recall something, then finally nodded. "Sit down. You leave at ten past nine."

That was sixty minutes. She sat in a desk and pulled out her History textlog, switching it on and waiting for the screen to clear. You couldn't add or delete information on a textlog, and there was no way to take notes on it except for by hand. Only the Dragonship Manual was produced as a book anymore, mainly because it was absolutely huge. Drawing out the notebook and a pencil, she began reading, taking down names, dates, and events. Her eyes were either on the screen or her notes, not paying any attention to either the clock or anyone else in the room. After about half an hour, she shut off that textlog, tucked it into her bag, and pulled out the PT Bio one, opening to another section in her notebook. She didn't see the other boys glance at the clock, seeing that it was 8:40, and leave with Sasaki's nod; her head was bent over her notes and her textlog.

"Nice job with the flying today, Higurashi," Sasaki said sarcastically once they were gone.

She glanced up, unsure how to reply, eyes turning silvery lavender, and finally mumbled, "Thank you, sir."

"It wasn't a compliment."

A small flare of obstinate anger reared up in her. "I know that, sir."

"Care to explain why you completely tanked it?" he asked dryly.

She held back a sigh, wondering which deity had decided to play a cruel joke on her life. "It wasn't the same machine, sir."

"Nonsense. It was a Dragonship."

Kagome had to keep herself from lifting him in the air like she'd done before, and instead said blandly, "When I flew the DA-001, it had two steering handles and other features I adjusted myself to when I psionically familiarized myself with the ship. The simulation I was in was of a regular Dragonship, with one steering handle, without the extra boosters on the undersides of the wings, and more. I wasn't used to it and I couldn't take a mental analysis of it because it was a simulation, not a real ship, which had made it easier to fly the DA-001. I realize that the boys have had to train on the simulators before being allowed in a Dragonship, which is why I'll train as hard as I can to adjust to the standard model. When it's a simulation, I can't manipulate anything psionically other than the switches directly in front of me, and I don't know how the ship is engineered to an extent that I can locate, say, a booster circuit, at any arbitrary moment. With the DA-001 I mentally scanned it so I could, which makes a world of difference, but the simulator wasn't the DA." She paused, then added shortly, "Sir."

He wasn't sure how to react. She'd just given him an explanation that fit perfectly into the two contrasting flying expeditions she'd had, but it was an honest, professional explanation and not what he wanted to see in this girl. What he wanted was a nasty, bratty girl, one he could easily pin blame on, one he could easily dislike. And she hadn't said it like she had been greatly wronged by having to fly something not worthy of her; she'd told it as if it was something that she needed to work on. Either she was an incredible actor, or she wasn't the flouncing drama queen he needed if he was going to have some leverage to get her out of his class and preferably the school.

God, did he hate this girl.

"You're dismissed, Higurashi," he said wearily.

"Sir?" She turned to the clock, to find it was only 8:49. "I thought I was in detention until—"

"Out. Don't question me." He folded his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair, eyes closed, and after a moment he heard her collect her things, then leave.

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Phew that was a loooooong chapter right? I wanted to get the whole day's experiences in 1 go so u can get a good feel of Kagome's nes life

Please read and review. PM if u know the author.


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note' before chapter 1. Thanks.

Yay! Time Traveller has had more than 50 visitors! So to celebrate here's 2 more chapters! If u like the story please review!

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TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 6118 AD, V.E.O. ACADEMY, NEO TOKYO, JAPAN

The next day was only slightly better. Miroku ate with her again, ignoring Inuyasha's darkling looks, and Sasaki only directly insulted her in front of the entire class two or three times. Professor Tenaka was pleased with the studying she'd put in—she'd taken about two more hours to go over all of her subjects after the detention and gone to bed by eleven—and told her that, at the rate she was going, she would be far enough along to take the midterm test in two weeks. After that, another three weeks and she'd probably be caught up with the class. Kagome silently reminded herself to try a book scan—taking in information directly, as she'd done with The Manual—on the textlog, though it took several scanning sessions to completely memorize a book. She'd been lucky to get by on just one when Sasaki had grilled her.

In combat training, Arakawa moved her into the same group as Inuyasha and Miroku, showing her the different drills and exercises they were using. Fortunately, he also sensed the tension between her and Inuyasha and avoided making them work together, despite the fact that they were supposed to be partners.

In AFT, Kagome was left to struggle with the simulation for the entire period, under Toutousai's command. He hadn't been able to come to her first class, but he co-taught with Kaede, and he'd heard about her disastrous first attempt. The boys were sent out in actual Dragonships to work on drills, but she had to stay behind, which deflated what was left of her ego even further. PT Bio was fine; Miroku ate dinner with her again, and Psionics was as fun as before.

This time, without detention, she had an hour to herself. The dock on top of the school wasn't off bounds, and she wanted to go up there again, so there she went.

Winds buffeted her ferociously the minute she stepped out of the transportation shaft, sending her braid whipping to her right like a thick black rope. She ignored them and walked to an edge with a railing, staring out. There were perhaps five other buildings as tall as this one, and then one enormous one in the center of the city that reared far over anything she'd seen before. A domed roof, illuminated by brilliant lights to glow like a golden drop in the dark night, called to mind another dome from another time, but she couldn't remember it at all.

She closed her stinging eyes, feeling the ground so far beneath her, the wind on her face, and inhaled, feeling something run down her face. This flying sensation—it was nothing compared to what she had once felt, she knew that, and yet nothing came to mind. She remembered soaring somehow, climbing into the sky and diving again, the swift, clinging dampness of a cloud, the feeling of nothing but the raw sun on her face, with only the atmosphere and the distance between her and their star. She remembered flying with her sisters, plunging through thick fog and chasing a rainbow, being taken along on lesser emergencies incase one day she would be able to fly too—

There was a noise behind her, and she whirled around, finding nothing. Hurriedly, she scrubbed at her face, wondering if it had been her imagination, then walked over to the transportation shaft, departing.

Inuyasha watched her go from behind a Dragonship, reluctantly noticing the tearstains on her face.

But she'd been at his thinking spot, here on the top of the school, and he'd had to wait for her to go. Part of him pointed out how immature he was being, but he ignored it.

So what if she'd been crying? He didn't care.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20—THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 6118 AD, V.E.O. ACADEMY, NEO TOKYO, JAPAN

The next two days were about the same. She struggled valiantly to catch up, catching every biting retort to an insult or derisive comment and stuffing it under a seemingly calm exterior that was getting closer and closer to cracking. She was getting better at the simulation, but not by much. Constant study of The Manual was helping, as were the two sheets that had to have been shoved under her door. One was a diagram of the standard Dragonship control panel and cockpit, with every switch labeled neatly, the page number where The Manual covered that switch right beside it. The other was a paper that had been folded in half twice, opening to a spread of about three feet long and two feet wide. On it were inked three different illustrations of a standard-model Dragonship, a view from the top, the bottom, and the side, one in each corner. In the fourth corner were close-ups of different parts, such as the main thruster, the gears and levers connected to the steering handle, different weapons, and so on. It now was tacked to the wall of her bedroom, along with the cockpit diagram, and she studied it every night, doing her best to commit it all to memory, because there was no way she could take it to Sasaki's class. His animosity towards her was lessening with all the speed of a glacier, and this would be another way she had an 'advantage' over the boys.

Inuyasha was doing his best to ignore her, other than send her the nasty look every once in a while, but his resentment of her still grew. She had screwed over any chances of him climbing the ranks in the military, and without her he'd still be the best at everything. His mind hadn't registered the fact that she wasn't the best at everything, not yet; he refused to see that most of what she'd known about martial arts had been forgotten; that any psionic spells and methods used past 3080, she didn't know; that when it came to flying a regular Dragonship, at least on the simulator, she was still a klutz; that Miroku was the only one to consent to eat with her; that her lack of knowledge concerning Dragonships was almost frighteningly lacking; a thousand more things that were against her right now, those he refused to acknowledge. Instead, his anger focused on her as the one real problem in his life.

When Miroku was serving a lunch detention and no one was there to eat with her on Thursday, Kagome had an opportunity to let her anger simmer, not just at Sasaki but at her partner who was anything but. They didn't fly together, didn't even talk if he could help it, and he was treating her as if she was a scrap of something old and smelly. At this point, she was getting close to losing it and letting him have it, which was not she wanted and not how partners were supposed to act. But she was going to have to keep her temper in check if she was going to make the best of this situation. She shoved another anger under her emotional shield and went back to stabbing at her food.

Something Kaede had said to her echoed in her mind, stirring something in her. "Not that I'm saying you should just roll over and let him pick at you, but he sees you as having an advantage…" Inuyasha resented her, that was for sure, and she was letting him. She couldn't prove to him that she wasn't competition; all she could do was prove to him that she wasn't going to roll over.

It escalated to near the breaking point in Psionics. Professor Hanesuzu had finished that night's lesson early and decided to let them play a game called 'Lift.' The rules were that someone began by lifting an object psionically, and then the next person either lifted it or was eliminated. After one round, the eliminated players would pick the next object within reason, until only two people were left, and then they would go back and forth, lifting whatever they could until they came to something only one of them could lift. The most one person had done was Professor Hanesuzu's desk. Miroku began, pointing at an eraser on the WhiteScreen and making it float up a bit. Only two people couldn't lift it, and they chose a mug on the desk next. It would take precision and caution—lifting was easy; not crushing it would be difficult, along with not breaking it when they set it down. Miroku, Kagome, and ten others passed that round. Items like binders, bags, and chairs were lifted and lowered, people sitting each round, until finally it was down to Inuyasha and Kagome, the two strongest psions in the school.

Inuyasha started the round by flicking a red-orange gaze over Kagome's shoulder to Professor Hanesuzu's heavy chair, which lifted into the air a few feet, then slowly dropped. Kagome didn't even turn around, eyes narrowing at him, and a second later it floated higher and was lowered swiftly.

He scowled fiercely. She glared back, trying to still the shaking in her knees. She was standing up for herself. It was a good thing.

Next, she lifted an empty desk. He matched that easily, muttering, "That's supposed to be difficult?"

His next choice was a statue in the corner. It was small but heavy, no easy target. Kagome lifted it with ease after he had, then lifted up the Comprojector, a weighty and unwieldy piece of machinery. Inuyasha had a bit of trouble making it levitate, to the whistles of his classmates.

That set it off. He sent a burning look to the Professor's desk, which creaked dangerously, staying in place, and then perilously lifted a few inches into the air, then dropped again. The boys hooted, sending grins at each other. It was about to get good.

Miroku blinked, wondering if Inuyasha had forgotten how Kagome had thrown around big honking pieces of equipment in the hospital room with little to no trouble and certainly no thought.

Kagome didn't even look at it, and it rose a foot, then lazily lowered, touching gently down. Not a pencil rolled off, not a paper fluttered. Appreciative whistles and claps filled the room.

Inuyasha threw an arm out, and all the desks rose into the air, the bags shooting up alongside them, until they came to a halt and hung six feet in the air, then descended after a moment. Sweat had broken out on his face, and even Professor Hanesuzu looked amazed.

Giving her a snide grin, he shot, "Top that."

While he was still watching her for an answer, she spat just as venomously, "I already have."

Inuyasha turned, bewildered, to find the desks floating a few inches from the ceiling, the bags hovering tenuously at the side once more: exactly what he'd done. What he hadn't done was make the chairs and everyone seated in one float near the ceiling as well, their occupants either gripping the edges for dear life or staring, stunned, at each other and grinning foolishly. Miroku himself was watching Kagome and noting the lights beginning to flicker, usually not a good sign.

The Comprojector rose unsteadily, then the professor's chair, then the statue. And then, groaning like an old tree, even the enormous desk rose, until only Inuyasha, Kagome, and the professor herself were left on the floor. Everything else was floating.

Kagome lowered it all, eyes closed, and after a moment everybody sprang to their feet, cheering. Some even had the audacity to come up and clap her on the back, her eyes flying open in astonishment. A smile spread across her face as they congratulated her, more people crowding around her, chattering about how they'd never seen anything like it and how it was no wonder Naraku had to watch out for her.

The crowning moment was when someone—a boy from England, if she remembered correctly, named Lawrence, who was a year older than her—asked casually if she wanted to eat breakfast at his table so she could show him how she'd stopped all that sound that one time, assuring her he hadn't been one of the 'idiot babblers', as he called them. No one had even noticed that class was over and they could go.

Unseen by anyone but Kagome, Inuyasha shoved his binder in his bag and stormed out. Her heart sank as she realized she had done exactly what she shouldn't have in defeating him in front of the entire class and adding another bruise on his already sore pride.

Rolling her eyes mentally, she brushed it off. It was either let herself be trampled on so Inuyasha could feel good about himself, which obviously hadn't been working fantastically well due to his continual insistence on ignoring her and Miroku, or show her mettle at the right time and at the right place and win respect, even if it was only from one class.

Still, deep down, she felt a little bad.

FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 6118 AD, V.E.O ACADEMY, NEO TOKYO, JAPAN

"It's settled," Hime Gohoshi said through the VidScreen, addressing Principal Ginme and the Head Commander. "The Emperor has no time for a full-on Council until a month from now. Hopefully, by then, Kagome will be fully oriented here—"

"And have gained a little more self-confidence," Kaede muttered.

"—and more comfortable in her surroundings, as well as adjusted to the school life," Hime Gohoshi finished amiably. For an elderly woman, she was a lot sharper than her sleepy façade let on, and all three women knew it. "The Council will be called, but only the Representatives of the Planets, the Psionic King, and the Emperor will attend. Kagome's awakening must remain a secret."

Both women nodded solemnly, and Principal Ginme said wryly, "Well, looks like the boys haven't found another way to blow themselves up yet."

Right on cue, a resounding boom rolled throughout the school, followed by distant cheers.

Principal Ginme put her hand in her heads, and Commander Kaede let out a long sigh, gazing heavenward.

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Please read and review. PM if u know the author.


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note' before chapter 1. Thanks

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3:45 PM, FRIDAY, APRIL 23

Kaede had debated with herself long and hard. She'd seen Kagome fly with her own eyes, and understood what was going on with the simulation, but Toutousai had still hesitated. Finally, today, he'd given in, and now they were going to see what, after the battle, Kagome was really capable of.

There was one more thing that she had conveniently forgotten to tell Toutousai, and that was that she was going to send Kagome out in the DA-001. She'd just received word of a DA-002 that was being shipped over to them, so it was safe, but nonetheless the old geezer would have an ulcer if he knew everything she planned.

Kagome's good mood had dimmed somewhat when she'd gone to the hangar. Breakfast with Lawrence and his friends had been great, with Miroku joining them—she'd taught them the basics of the silence trick and they'd joked and laughed; Lawrence's friends had been a bit wary of her, but they'd relaxed once they'd realized that she was not out to kill them and not that much different from their sisters, only going to a different school.

Sasaki had just flat-out ignored her, which hadn't been too bad except for when she'd known the answer to a question no one else did for once and had raised her hand. He, of course, being Sasaki, had pretended not to see her. Then history had been okay, and her math class about as boring as usual, and in Professor Arakawa's class she'd learned a new combination of moves, getting it down fairly well. Now, though, things were probably going to take a turn downhill. At least Sasaki wasn't teaching this too, or she'd have gotten in a Dragonship, run him down, and flew it into a wall herself.

"Wait up, kiddo." A hand tapped her shoulder before she could automatically head over to the simulators while everyone else flew out. "You're not doing that today." Kaede turned from her to the rest of the class, ordering, "Everyone do a run on the battle simulator—Toutousai, level five—and Inuyasha, come over here." She returned her attention to the wide-eyed girl. "Listen, I know the problems with the simulator compared to actually flying, and I know what I saw you do. I'm going to give you a test run on the DA-001, with Inuyasha flying with you in his ship. If things get out of control, all you'll have to do is hit the emergency switch, and it'll go into autopilot and return to the hangar." Kaede took a deep breath, then held a helmet out to Kagome. "I know you're a lot better than what the simulation says; all you have to do is prove it to everyone else. Now go put this on and get into your ship."

Kagome took it, hands shaking, and nodded after a second, heart racing. This was her one chance, her one real opportunity to show her stuff, her ticket out of spending the next three years in a stuffy simulation cockpit that felt too much like an arcade game.

The DA-001 stood a little apart from the other aircrafts, its sides still new and wings still razor-sharp and sun-bright, despite the amount of use she'd put them to. The blood had been long since rinsed off and the steel polished bright. The hatch was open, and she carefully climbed into the cockpit, settling the helmet over her head and not noticing the worn chinstrap or the initials KT etched in the back.

The windshield snapped over her, the straps shooting out and locking her in place, and her hands settled comfortably on each of the steering handles. This was what she was used to, this was what she could handle. She ran a quick mental check and found nothing had been damaged and all the ammunition restored and grinned a hunter's grin.

Reaching forward, she flicked the fuel switch and felt the engine's hum under her seat, then turned on the smaller boosters under the wing with a mere touch of her psionic power. Slight pressure on the steering handles made the ship roll forward, smooth as cool lemonade. Kagome felt more at home here than she did at just about anywhere else. No one to bother her, no one to sneer at her, no truly strange devices, nothing but her and her Dragonship.

"Take her out, Kagome, and go through basic maneuvering," Kaede commanded, voice crackling in the speaker by her head. In the background she could hear Toutousai demanding what she was doing in the DA-001, but the transmission ended before he said anything she didn't want to hear. The different view-screens picked up another Dragonship following her, and she remembered Kaede had said Inuyasha was going with her.

She came to the aisle between the rows of Dragonships that served as a runway for individual ships and revved the engine, grinning at the thought of getting out in this ship again. Gripping the steering handles tightly, she shoved forward on them, psionically supplying more fuel to the engine and thrusters at the same time. In response, the DA-001 shot forward and cleared the hangar in less than a second, soaring into the cloudy sky beyond the school.

The basic maneuvers were slowing, turning, and flying at an angle, all of which she completed in less than ten seconds, then went into her own maneuvers, flying upside-down, going into a corkscrew, doing a barrel roll, diving dramatically and then pulling out of it to shoot up, almost perpendicular to the ground. It was almost as good as her limited memories of flying, and she'd missed it.

Unbeknownst to her, not only was everyone in the hangar watching her from a VidScreen trained on the DA-001—it was barely keeping up with her—but, for the second time that week, Sasaki had come out to watch and let his class follow along.

"Who's the pilot?" he asked Kaede.

"Well, the one in the regular Dragonship is Inuyasha Dairei," she said tonelessly, trying to keep a humongous grin off of her face and actually succeeding. "And then the one who's on the VidScreen is Kagome Higurashi." At his blank look, she pretended to mistake it for non-recognition rather than shock. "You know, that girl who was woken up from under the school and has been enrolled here. I'm sure she's in at least one of your classes."

Sasaki silently stalked back to the Mech Shop, class in tow.

Grinning widely now, Kaede picked up the transmit-microphone and said, "Okay, very nice, Kagome, bring her on in now. We've got some talking to do."

In the cockpit, Kagome nodded, then realized Kaede couldn't see that and said into the speaker, "Okay, coming on in." She wheeled around, a huge smile on her face, and pointed the ship in the direction of the school—

Just as something huge and unseen slammed into the side of the DA-001. From a muffled string of curses over the radio, she gathered something had hit Inuyasha too, but at the moment she was too occupied by the fact that she was spinning wildly out of control. The steering levers were moving on their own, jerked by the force that had thrown her off and away from the school.

A youkai the size of the hangar suddenly appeared, one fist around her ship, the other around Inuyasha's. Inuyasha was firing at it, but if he killed it now, it would fall on the school, and that couldn't happen.

In a flash of inspiration, Kagome hit the incinerator switch. Searing heat ran over the craft, forcing the youkai to drop her, howling and shaking its pudgy fist. A moment later, it released Inuyasha as well, now making twice the noise.

"Follow me," Inuyasha commanded over the transmitter. "We'll lead it to the abandoned part of town in the east—it's not walking on anything, just floating."

"Got it." She checked her compass, ducking under a wildly swinging fist, and hared off after Inuyasha, deliberately going slower than she could. It lumbered after them, a low, gurgling cry emerging from a misshapen throat. It was forced to fly higher, clearing the buildings, in order to swat at both Kagome and Inuyasha, who had led it higher on purpose.

Eventually the buildings thinned out until they were crumbling ruins, and there Inuyasha turned to face it, Kagome following suit. Both simultaneously opened fire, and it bellowed, waving at them frantically. She launched a missile at it, which struck its enormous white belly, and a moment later a puff of smoke came from within the folds of flesh, but there was no visible result otherwise. Inuyasha let out another string of curses, barking to her that they'd probably have to cut this thing up with the wings and the laser whiskers, and flew straight at its neck.

Through sheer luck, the thing caught his craft, seizing it in a soft white hand that had already healed from its earlier burn. After a moment, it began to squeeze, but by then, it was doomed, because Kagome had begun to lose her temper.

She hit the anti-gravity thrusters and the DA-001 halted in midair, hatch popping open after a moment. Climbing out to the top, she planted her feet as firmly as she could on it and held her hands in front of her about a foot apart, arms extended. A crackling ball of blue-white light formed there almost immediately, a halo of less intense power wreathing her figure, and she let the power between her hands swell, then loosed.

A beam of light speared the sky, coming right next to the thing's neck. And then she swung right, the feeling as the power cut through flesh and bone vibrating down. She stolidly ignored it until it had been decapitated completely.

The hand gripping Inuyasha's ship fell limp, releasing the crippled machine, which plummeted towards the ground, the thrusters half-heartedly slowing the fall. She didn't see the other fat hand coming toward her until it struck her left wing, bending it like foil as it passed and jarring her badly. She leapt into the cockpit, hatch slamming shut over her head, and seized the steering handles, trying to land somehow, but the ground was rushing up and one wing was useless…

Yanking on all of her power, she slowed both her and Inuyasha's falls the best she could, which meant hitting the ground at not quite full force, though it was far from as soft as a fluffy bunny. The impact was going to leave more than a few bruises, and she didn't even want to think about her ship. Kaede was going to kill her.

Inuyasha had fallen about fifty feet from her, hadn't he? She released the straps, pushing her way out of the mangled cockpit, and stood shakily, looking around. The cloudy sky overhead offered no help, and the landscape was mostly crumbling, old buildings. She'd landed in what could have been a docking lot for a skyscraper, or something… The ancient, skeletal structure was behind her, with Inuyasha's crumpled ship at its base, and as she watched, he slowly climbed out, looking a bit rough around the edges to say the least. She probably didn't look like the epitome of feminine beauty herself, but that didn't matter.

The thing's arm flopped over, striking the building as she had begun to walk over to him. It teetered perilously for a moment, swaying, then fell with a crunch on both of them. Blinding darkness and choking dust filled the air, and she pulled her shirt over her nose and mouth, clenching her eyes shut and trying to suppress a coughing fit.

Somehow, she'd been caught in a crevasse of debris that had made something of a pocket of air, but how long that was going to last, she didn't know. If there was a vent to the outside that would let in fresh air, that would be good, but if not…

If not, she'd worry about it later. She would have cast a light, but she was close to drained and already the exhaustion was wearing at her. "Inuyasha?"

"What?" There was something of an 'oh-darn-you-didn't-die' tone to his voice.

"Are you okay?"

"If I wasn't, you'd know." He sounded about twenty feet away or so.

"I can't see in the dark and I can't smell blood," she retorted. "So no, I wouldn't know." When no response came, she asked, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know." She could swear he'd crossed his arms and had a scowl on his face, even if she couldn't see him. "I've never been trapped under a building before."

"I have." Kagome got to her feet, tested her reserves, and found she'd regenerated enough power to cast a small light. A flick of blue-white bloomed into an orb, throwing shadows into relief, and she spotted Inuyasha sitting among the debris, running a hand through his hair. "I'm about drained, and even if I wasn't, I don't know if I could lift an entire building," she said wearily. "I don't think I could."

"They'll find us in a few hours." He refused to look at her, a scowl on his face. "There's a tracking device in every ship, incase someone decides to go for a joyride or something like this."

"Works for me." She held in a yawn, eyelids dragging. "I'm going to sleep."

"Why?" He snorted.

"I'm near-drained." Kagome found a slab of debris that would have to work and sat on it. "I said that already."

"Didn't think you'd ever get drained," he muttered darkly just as she laid back.

That made her sit up again. Her sleep wasn't the priority of he was going to openly challenge her again. She didn't want to dominate him; she didn't want to beat him; all she wanted was a little honest respect. "Why do you hate me so much?" He didn't answer. "What did I do?" she asked again, getting angrier. "I mean, first you're throwing trays into people on my behalf, and then all of a sudden I do something right and you're like 'I hate you! You're good at something! I eat your soul!'"

"You shouldn't be here," he snarled. "You don't belong here—"

"You're acting like I want to be here!" she yelled, finally losing it. "You're acting like I wanted to be separated from everything I knew! You're acting like I'm enjoying being pushed around by most of a school that thinks everyone like me is automatically weaker! You're acting like I'm happy that everything I knew, everyone I cared for, is gone! Well, let me tell you something: I'm not!" She took a deep breath, and he cut in.

"You throw around your abilities like they're toys!"

"Oh, so now I can't be good at anything?" she demanded.

"I never said that!"

"You said that I'm a show-off!"

"I said that you throw around your abilities!"

"That's the same thing!"

"No it's not!"

"Explain to me how that's not the same thing!"

"I don't have to!"

"You mean you can't!"

"Yes I can, I just don't want to!"

"No you can't, or you would have!"

"I can!"

"You can't!"

"Can too!"

"Can not!"

"Can too!"

"Can not!"

"Can too!"

"Grow up!" She was so tired; all she wanted was to sleep, but she couldn't until this was resolved. "I'm not here to make you look bad, whether you want to think that or not!"

"Why do you have to be here, anyway?" he fired back.

"Because the people making the big decisions are the ones that want me here! Not in another school, not in another city, here!" She laid flat, hands behind her head. "There's nothing I can do to change that, even if I wanted to. Now, like I said before, I'm going to sleep." She closed her eyes, and silence met her words.

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Please read and review. PM if u know the author.


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note' before chapter 1. Thanks.

OK so I may have found the author for this story I'm trying to contact them but so far haven't been able to.

Also I am working on my own story which is somewhat similar with dragons and time travel and is what made me remember this story, to begin with. They are not the same though but I'd love if ya'll would read it and tell me what you think!2 chapters up for SINGULARITY

2 chapters up for SINGULARITY on my profile. Please read and review thanks!

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5:13 PM, FRIDAY, APRIL 23

Kagome sat up, feeling her muscles cramp and a headache beginning to come on, but she was somewhat rested. Of course, the thing she'd dreamt of was flying, but the free flying, nothing that required a machine. It was heartbreaking to be locked in here, trapped under the ground, of all things.

The light was still feebly glowing, showing Inuyasha at the foot of one heap of rubble that had formed the little valley they were in. It was around twenty feet long and ten feet wide, with the sides sloping down to a little clear ground in the middle.

He glanced over at her, then looked away, and she closed her eyes, determined that if he was going to keep it up she was just going to ignore him.

Suddenly she realized her cheeks felt strange, the area under her eyes as well. She put a hand there, confused.

"What were you dreaming about?"

Startled, Kagome's head swiveled to face Inuyasha, still hunkered down by his heap of debris and avoiding meeting her gaze. After a moment, she managed to make her voice work. "Flying," she said quietly. "I was dreaming of flying."

He snorted. "Why would that make you cry?"

"I was crying?" That explained it. "Never mind… It's not flying like you know it. There was something in my time…Not a ship, not a machine, I don't think… But you didn't need to be in a cockpit to fly. You could touch the clouds, actually go over a river with just your toes touching the water…" She heaved a bitter sigh. "We had the secret to flying somehow, and I can't remember it. But every time I look outside, or stand on the roof, or go out in a Dragonship, I remember flying, and it hurts." After a moment, she swallowed and added, "That's probably why I was crying."

Inuyasha finally made himself look at her, and fortunately she wasn't looking at him, instead still sitting on her slab, staring distantly at the roof of their prison, as if she could see beyond that and beyond this time. He'd had some time to think, and, as much as he didn't want to think it, maybe she wasn't too awful.

There was a creak and a groan, right above where Kagome was sitting. She glanced up, eyes widening, to find the roof bulging above her.

In one leap, Inuyasha had seized her around the waist and gotten her away from that patch, a line of pain streaking across his chest, then his left palm, as a rail raked across both. A moment later, the youkai's bulbous hand broke through, still limp, making debris rain down around that. Slowly, the rest of the roof began to cave in.

He felt a brief shiver of fear from Kagome, and then something happened. A faint white glow came over her, a spear of white light in each of her pupils, the look on her face devoid of any emotion.

White power—pure white, not her normal blue-white—rolled around the space that was still left and settled there, keeping the debris from falling and smothering them. After a moment, it faded, though everything was still left in place.

Inuyasha was going to pass out. What had just come from the near-comatose Kagome was the densest, most intense psionic power he'd ever seen.

She blinked, the whiteness having long since faded, and glanced up at him. "What's the matter?"

"How did you—the—I—" He gestured at the walls.

"Oh, great, it stopped before we got all smooshed." She walked over, and he realized she didn't have a clue what she had done. "What were you asking me?"

"Never mind." He settled for examining the gash across his chest rather than think about Kagome. To his surprise, it hadn't healed yet.

Oh no.

Shit! Shit! Shit on a stick!

Just as Kagome created a new light that was much brighter than the previous one, he felt the transformation begin and sat down, hard. She was concentrating on her light, but when she finished, letting it float free, and her eyes landed on him, she jumped at least a foot in the air.

"What the—?!" Seizing a broken rail, she held it out menacingly. "Who are you and what did you do with Inuyasha?!"

"I am Inuyasha, you dolt," he said wearily. "And if you tell anyone about this I swear I will disembowel you."

She blinked, then lowered the rail. "Well, if you're making death threats, that's usually an indication that you're okay. Mind explaining why your hair is black now, though?" Before he could respond, she cut in. "Wait a second—oh. I get it! You're a hanyou!"

He glowered at her. He knew what was coming next: "You're a hanyou? Isn't it weird being only half human and half demon? I think I'd die if I were a hanyou. Are there any other hanyou kids, or are you the only one?" That was the standard youkai response. Most humans were just flat-out afraid of him, partially because of his reputation—false or not—and partially because he was a hanyou. A freak.

A wide grin spread across her face. "Well, that explains everything. I was wondering why your ears aren't just pointed like most youkai, but that must make hearing things a lot easier." She settled down across from him. "So once a month, you change to human." She checked her watch. "One night a month. I take it you don't let word get out, hence the de-intestine-ing threat?"

He nodded mutely, taken completely by surprise. She acted like he'd just said he was…lactose intolerant, or something! As it seemed to be happening a lot, what was going through his head was coming out of his mouth. "Aren't you scared of me?"

Kagome tilted her head to the side, a bit confused. "Why would I be scared of you?"

He didn't answer for a moment, then spat out, voice acidic with old anger, "Because my father was one of the strongest youkai in the world and everyone thinks I killed him."

"I don't." She hugged her knees up to her chest, settling her chin on them.

"Why not?"

"Because when I was wigging out in the hospital room, one of the things you said was that you saw your parents killed. You didn't sound like you were lying then, and you don't now."

"Don't you get it?" He wanted to tear his hear out in frustration, but bald would not be a good look for him. What was wrong with this girl? He was a hanyou! A freak! He didn't belong!

Neither does she, a tiny voice whispered.

"Get what?"

"I'm a hanyou! Hanyou equals bad! Hanyous don't happen! Two different species aren't supposed to work like that!"

"Since when?" She shrugged, casual. "Doesn't anyone consider that if more youkai and humans got married and had children, then their children would have children, and eventually we'd become one new race that would have both human abilities and youkai?"

He stared at her. He was an outcast, a shunt of society—why didn't she understand?

What if she did? What didn't he understand, then?

The gash in his chest ached painfully, and curses echoed around the walls of his mind. "Tell me more about flying," he said, trying to hide the pain in his voice. His clothes would have to act as a bandage until they could get out or he could return to hanyou form.

She closed her eyes. "It's like being in a Dragonship, but without having to steer it all over the place, and without the windshield or the straps or anything. I've been up so high that there were no clouds, just the atmosphere, and that was it between me and the sun. You can go fast or slow, and no one can call you names or say that you aren't worth anything up there. Not even gravity can control you anymore—all you've got are your morals and your speed. No one can make you do stupid, silly things. No one can humiliate you…or spit on you… or ever made me feel so stupid, or made me put up with so much blind resentment…" He didn't think she'd even realized what she was saying. "I could just get away, though I'd need one of my sisters…I had a twin, and an older sister, and I loved them so much… I wasn't what they expected of me, I can't remember why—I think my psionic powers were still dormant then or something—but they loved me too, they always took me flying… My best friend, she died keeping me alive… Everything was so normal, and no one made my life hard just because I was a girl…I want to go home…" She buried her face in her arms, shoulders shaking violently, and Inuyasha realized with horror that she'd started crying again.

Gods. What did he do now?

Frantically he searched his mind for anything to say, other than 'quit blubbering, you ninny', and his mind landed on one that would be a gamble but might work. "Kagome—this's your home now."

Her head lifted, and she stared at him with wide silver eyes, blue-purple slowly leaking into them. For a long moment, their eyes locked, neither of them speaking. The tears dried on her face, leaving small rings and lines of salt crystals that were nearly invisible. Her eyes were completely blue-purple except for small pale blue bubbles swimming in them.

Then she held out her hand. "Partners?" It was part invitation, part tenuous question.

Now he was surprised, eyes yellow-orange in equal surprise. After a moment, he shook it. "Partners."

Then he swayed, vision graying from blood loss. Apparently he hadn't even noticed, though he definitely was now.

For the first time, he heard Kagome swear, and there was a scraping sound. A strangely damp hand seized his left one, the one with the gash in it, and a shock ran through both of them. His vision cleared after a moment, the dizziness still there, and he leaned back.

"Are you all right?" Kagome asked, voice thick with fear.

"Fine," he said gruffly, trying to clear his head. "I've survived worse."

"As a hanyou, maybe!" She took his hand again, and he glanced over to see her hand darkened by blood—but not his. The edge of a cut on her palm showed when she shifted a bit, brow furrowed in concentration, the psionic tang in the air.

Luckily for Kagome, he realized exactly what she was doing just as she finished. Sitting bolt upright, he yanked his hand away. "Don't kill yourself, you idiot!"

"I didn't," she said, her face a few shades paler from transfusing a healthy dose of her blood to him. "I wasn't going to let you get killed, though."

Inuyasha shook his head. She was rash, that was seen easy enough, but only at certain times.

The debris above them grated, but it was moving up instead of down, more psionic power wrapping around it. After putting up a shield to keep them from being clobbered by the dust and any loose material, Kagome helped as much as she could, though her reserves were still fairly low. Eventually dark sky came into view, fresh air rushing in. Professor Hanesuzu, Principal Ginme, Hime Gohoshi, and Commander Kaede all stood there, breathing a bit hard.

"How are the Dragonships?" Kagome asked.

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	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha OR this story. Please refer to the 'Story Note' before chapter 1. Thanks.

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8:37 PM, MONDAY, APRIL 26, 6118 AD, V.E.O. ACADEMY, NEO TOKYO, JAPAN

Pounding came from one remote section of the Main Workshop, along with a few sparks. A tall figure was bent over something there—a piece of metal about twelve feet long and five feet wide. To the side was a piece metal about three feet wide and sturdy, curved in an arch.

Over the worktable were pinned several sketches and diagrams of what the metal was going to become. Already Inuyasha was getting close—all it would take was some cutting and shaping now. The design had been the hard part, along with all the calculations.

Footsteps thudded in through the door, and Miroku's voice cheerily called, "Hey, Inuyasha, I'm teaching Kagome how to play our version of Poker! Wanna join in?"

"Can't," he replied, not even glancing up. "I may be done with this by the end of the week if I do enough tonight."

Miroku glanced at the plans, then at the metal, and grinned, then walked out. It was a good thing that breakfast started at nine—Inuyasha was going to be working late on this, and he'd need all the sleep later that he could get.

A fountain of sparks spurted up, falling in a shower around the boy, bent over in concentration.

9:23 AM, SATURDAY, MAY 1, 6118 AD, V.E.O. ACADEMY, NEO TOKYO, JAPAN

Kagome let out a long sigh as she stepped out of the transportation shaft, having finished her breakfast early and going to her room; they had Saturdays and Sundays to themselves. She hadn't been able to fly for the past week while the DA-001 was being repaired; she was only glad that it was reparable. Inuyasha's ship hadn't fared as well, but Kaede had said that they'd have another assigned to him fairly soon.

Word had circulated around the school about the prior week, from her inability to fly what she had now named the 'Simulator-Hell-Beast-Machine' to the transition from the Simulator-Hell-Beast-Machine to the DA-001, proving that she actually could fly; word had gotten around of just about everything. No one had spit at her, but no one was calling her names anymore, either.

That was helped by the fact that, while they weren't exactly giggling over the latest gossip, she and Inuyasha weren't at each other's throats anymore. They'd been willing to see how far she'd let them push her; they weren't going to push him if they could help it.

She let herself into her dorm, rubbing her shoulder. She'd slept on it funny, and it was a bit sore, but she just had to loosen it up.

Kagome padded down the hall, glancing out the window of the living room, turned to head to her bedroom, and stopped, looking at the living room again.

There, on the table, glistened about thirteen feet of shining, feather-light steel. Stunned, she walked over and lifted it up, finding two straps on either side of the curved metal part that connected the two main pieces. It was a glider, unlike any she'd ever seen.

It was when she propped it up and examined one wing, still absolutely amazed, that she found it was cut in an unusual way. An idea began to form in her mind, and she set it on the couch, stepping back to get a better look at it.

There was no denying it. Grooves running in a distinct pattern, the edges—The way it was shaped—

Someone had made her wings.

Inuyasha stood on the ground, watching, and Kagome teetered on the edge of the roof, nervous and not knowing he was watching. She was holding tightly onto the straps, stomach fluttering, and part of her screamed that she needed to get back inside and on firm ground, while the other part was insisting she take the plunge.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened them, and jumped.

Inuyasha could see her much better than she could see him, and he would always remember that look on her face: the brief uncertainty and surprise as her feet left anything solid.

Kagome looked down, seeing the ground so far beneath her, then up at the clear sky, and realized she was flying.

It only took a moment for memories to begin rushing back.

Inuyasha watched her slowly float to ground, the look on her face astonished and eyes huge in her face. The second her foot touched the ground, she whirled to face him, looking as if she'd discovered fire. Before he could ask what was going on, she blurted out, "I remembered something! Come on!"

She had seized his wrist and was hauling him into the school, the glider slung over her shoulder, before he could so much as blink. "You found me under the Scanner Level, right?"

"Yeah—mind explaining what's happening, Kagome?!"

She yanked him into the transportation shaft, tersely barking, "Scanner Level!"

"Off limits," chimed a voice. "Closed for repairs."

"Override it," she snapped, putting a hand to the circuit board. A few electrical sparks crackled out, and after a second they moved down.

"Kagome—what—"

"We don't have time!" They burst into the empty level, the gaping hole still in the ground, and Kagome hesitated for a second, then jumped in.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha was forced to drop in after her, even though she'd let go of his arm—what was she doing, just throwing herself down there like that?

She landed neatly, thanks to the glider, and folded it up, unhooking one end of each strap and then clipping them together over her shoulder so the glider would stay secured to her back. The Preservex—that was what they were called—loomed in the distance, atop a huge pile of rubble. It had filled with the preserving vapors and activated again, though no one had touched it.

She clambered up the heap of concrete and dust, Inuyasha right behind her, and stumbled to the top, punching the round green button. The vapors were released, the panel sliding open, and she waited until the chamber had cleared, then stepped inside.

There it was: the satchel.

"Kag—Kago—Take—keep it—safe—"

She lifted it up, carefully cradling it in her arms, and peered inside to find the seven spheres inside, glowing slightly.

"Kagome, what is that?" Inuyasha asked from behind her.

She turned, showing him the contents, a grin on her face. It was then that Kagome seemed most dangerous—when she knew something he didn't, and she knew how to use it. "This," she said slowly, "is why Naraku wants to kill me."

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